And You Let Her Go?
by TheGirlin404
Summary: Jane let Maura marry someone else. Now, months later, Maura needs her. Will Jane continue to be just her friend, or will she finally let there be something more between them? This is a sequel to the story And written by wolvesjr34.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything R &I related. **

**AN: THIS IS IMPORTANT TO READ: So, this little story right here is a sequel of another story. This is the sequel to the story And by wolvesjr34. I was discussing And with her one night and shared a bit of a crazy idea I had for a sequel to it and she challenged me to step out of my comfort zone and write a sequel to And. I managed a decent start and she gave me permission to post it here. If you haven't read And I would suggest that you do. And... I hope you enjoy!**

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Maura reached down for the test on the edge on the bathroom sink. Three minutes could pass agonizingly slow when waiting for an all important moment. Though, the test was only confirming what she was already sure of. The little positive sign wasn't that much of a shock to her system; she'd started throwing up two days ago. She had hoped for those two days that it was just some kind of virus going around, but she was a doctor and knew better.

This moment in time was one of the few that she wanted to pick something up and throw it. The only thing at hand though was the pregnancy test, and it made her shudder to think of throwing that around anywhere. Instead she just slid the test back into the thick wrapper, and that all back into the box and tossed the whole thing in the trashcan. She considered for a moment taking it somewhere and trashing it so her husband wouldn't see it, but she knew he wouldn't notice it anyway.

She finished getting ready so she could head into work early. She needed to get the reports back on the tests she'd left to have run overnight for the latest homicide. She'd have to call her doctor's office from her office once they were open.

Her Prius seemed to be on autopilot as it made its way to the station. She was distracted most of the time. She contemplated how exactly she was going to tell Nate she was pregnant. For a moment she wondered what it was he would say when she told him. She couldn't come up with any scenarios of what either of them would say though; she'd never been the kind to play 'what if' games as a child and that trait had followed her into adulthood.

Maura pulled herself from her thoughts and stepped out of the car. She still had all day to come up with some way of telling him. She would figure something out by the time he was home.

R&I

A rather brash and hasty knock sounded on the door to her office making Maura jump slightly in her chair as it pulled her from her thoughts. She glanced up from her computer at the wild mane of dark curls that belonged to her best friend. She smiled slightly and Jane didn't need any more of an invitation to get down to business.

"I heard that the tests had come back on the Jensen case."

Maura nodded slightly as she shifted some of the paperwork on the desk to get to the file she had placed everything in. "The tox screen didn't show anything out of the ordinary and the lab is still working on identifying the fibers found on the body."

She watched as her friend studied the paperwork; her eyebrows crinkling together ever so slightly as she thought over what that meant for the case. More than anything at that moment Maura wanted to open her mouth and tell her best friend what she'd confirmed this morning.

She couldn't make herself do it though. She was afraid of what Jane might say to her about it. Though they were still good friends, their friendship had drifted ever so slightly since her marriage to Nate. At times over the last fourteen months since her marriage it had even been strained. Some of the time she hadn't quite understood what had even caused the strain to begin with. Then within a few days things were mostly back to normal between them. This kind of news though, might crush their friendship: she wasn't entirely sure why, it was a feeling she had, so she was going to keep this to herself for now. She should really tell Nate first anyway.

"You okay?"

Maura looked up at her best friend now standing in front of her desk. "There's just some stuff going on at home, that's all." She wasn't trying to lie to her best friend, but she really did not want to be discussing this with her right now.

"You need to talk about it?" Jane asked as she quirked an eyebrow like she didn't quite believe what she'd just been told.

"No," Maura replied hastily. "It will be fine. Plus I'm sure that you still have some interviews to do on the case. I'll let you know when we get the tests back on those carpet fibers."

Jane stood in the same spot for a few moments assessing the blonde. Just as she looked like she was going to say something she gave a small nod. "Alright, I'll see you later then." She then turned on her heel and strode towards the door of the office. She paused momentarily at the threshold and turned. "I'm here if you need me though."

R&I

Maura pulled into the driveway. It was still early yet for the time she would normally get home from the precinct and she was exhausted. Not to mention the fact that her husband's car was already in the driveway as well. That didn't really bode well. It could only mean that he'd had a bad day at the office and would be up late working on his latest case.

She got out of the car and slowly made her way over to the front steps. After the match on the carpet fibers had come back and no new cases had come in she decided to take the afternoon off from BPD. It just so happened her doctor could work her in, so she took the spot. Though, her doctor had just confirmed what she and the pregnancy test she took this morning already knew.

She was right around eight weeks and it all added up as it should have. Her marriage might not be the best one out there, especially for one that was still considered new by many, but Maura would never step outside of her marriage. With the pre-nups they had signed for each other's lawyers, it would be easier to ask for a divorce and go separate ways if she wanted to sleep with someone else.

Maura set her things down on the table by the door and made her way further into the house. As she made her way down the hall on the first floor she could hear Nate's voice drifting out through the slight crack in the door to his office.

He spent ninety percent, or better, of his time in his office with the door cracked like that; most of the time she wouldn't disturb him, but today she decided to go in. Quietly, she pushed open the door and stepped inside. He quickly noticed her and while he half smiled he held up his finger signaling for her to give him just another minute on the phone.

Another minute on the phone quickly turned into five, and Maura sat quietly in one of the chairs just in front of his desk. She only paid slight attention to his half of the conversation she could hear. Mainly it sounded like him bossing one of his assistants around about which files needed to be gone through and which ones they needed for their current cases. The other half of her was still considering just how to break the news to him that she was pregnant.

The method that she liked best was just to be upfront about things. However, this didn't seem like the time to just come right out and tell him she was pregnant. They'd had a few conversations about having a family before and after they were married. She had always been a little fearful that she would turn out to be a parent like the ones she was raised by and that left her a little uneasy about having them. However, something within her still wanted to be a mother, almost more than anything else.

Nate had never seen himself as the father type. He was focused on his career and didn't really want to take the time out of it to have a child. A part of her feared that he would be angry about the pregnancy. Another part of her feared that he would be indifferent about it all; she wasn't sure what would be worse, anger about it or his indifference to something so important. At this moment she just wanted to be able to come home and share the news with someone who would be happy and excited, but that wasn't the kind of spouse she had.

"Maura," she heard, and it pulled her from her thoughts. "You're home early."

She looked up at him. Well, he'd actually gotten off the phone and was ready to talk a bit. "I could say the same for you. Rough day at the office?"

He nodded slightly, "You could say that. As it turns out, we didn't have all of the information we needed for the case. Apparently our clients have been hiding a few things from us. Never a good thing for a business to try and hide things. Just the kind of story the media likes to pick up and have a field day with. So now we're trying to get ahead of anything that may come to light."

He eventually trailed off and started milling around through the paperwork on his desk. "I suppose I should go get some dinner started," Maura said as she stood from her chair. "Should be nice the both of us getting to have dinner together."

"Okay, whatever you want to do hon."

Maura walked out of the room and back towards the rest of the house. She wasn't going to get anything else from him for now. Heaven forbid that he ever ask her about what might have happened during her day at work. He used to ask about her days at work. That was something that he'd always done when they were dating. He had changed quite a bit since the day they'd said 'I do.' He didn't ask questions about her anymore; there were times when they barely spoke to one another and they didn't go out anymore either, unless it was a dinner or party that was important for his business. He hadn't attended any functions for the Isles Foundation in months.

Everyone just exclaimed, "Oh, he's a busy man and has a lot of important work," when they found out that he wasn't with her. She thought that was a load of bull. She smirked to herself for thinking of that expression. One that Jane had no doubt helped her get down over the years. She was an important woman. She helped to solve death and murders on a daily basis; something that she felt was noble, but apparently she'd just become the wife of someone else.

At times she wondered if Nate had only married her for her name. When they got married she would have never considered that an option. She genuinely loved him, even if she didn't love him in the same way that she did Jane. Jane had refused her though, and she feared that she would never find anyone to love again, or find anyone who would love her the way the two of them loved her. If she had ever thought for a moment that he didn't care for her the way she thought, she would have stepped up and called off the wedding. She would have worked this whole time on convincing Jane that there was a way that they could be together.

Fear. That was what lead her to be right here at this moment. As she gathered the ingredients she would need for their dinner she made a resolution to herself. From here on out, she was going to try and stop fear from leading her into something like this ever again. She knew it wouldn't be easy, but she had to try. She knew just how to start too; she was going to tell her husband that she was pregnant.

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 **Both wolves and myself would love to hear what you think so far, so please leave us a review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Okay, so let me take a moment here to say Oh My Goodness y'all! I am seriously having a hard time actually believing that there are that many of you following and favoriting and reviewing already. It has been amazing! Thank y'all so much! I'll have another AN at the end of the chapter with a bit more, but for now though enjoy.**

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A couple of hours later and Maura was setting the table for dinner. It had been weeks since she'd cooked a meal they both shared at the same time. Nate came in from his office just as she was finishing off placing the plates on the table in the dining room and ready to pull the chicken out of the oven.

Nate walked over and poured himself a drink. "Can I get you anything?"

Maura turned after she set the dish down she'd just pulled out of the oven. "No, I'm fine thank you."

Nate eyed her for a moment. She knew it was unusual for her to turn down a drink unless one of them had to be a designated driver because they were at a party or function. He simply shrugged slightly and slid his bottle back in its place before heading towards the dining room where she had everything set for dinner.

Maura grabbed the dish with the chicken and followed him. She probably wouldn't have his attention for very long, so she thought it best to get to the matter at hand as soon as she could. She set the dish down in the center of the area between their two places and took her seat.

"That looks nice," he said as he set his glass down on the table and picked up his fork.

"I hope you enjoy," Maura said as she watched him spear a piece of the chicken on his fork and bring it to his plate. She could feel the nervousness setting in and knew that she had better bring the conversation up quickly. "So, I have something that I'd like to talk to you about," she started.

Nate glanced up briefly from where he was helping himself to the green salad she'd prepared. "Alright, what is it?"

She took a quick breath before continuing. "I went to the doctor today."

His fork paused halfway to his mouth as he glanced back at her. "Are you feeling okay? You didn't say anything about being sick."

This was it. This was the moment of no return. "I'm not sick. Well I'm not sick all of the time." Nate's eyebrows creased together ever so slightly. She could tell that he hadn't quite put it together just yet. "I'm pregnant."

He choked ever so slightly on the piece of chicken he'd stuck in his mouth just before her last sentence. He quickly grabbed for his whiskey glass and took a hearty drink to help the food hung in his throat pass. "I'm sorry what?"

"I'm pregnant," Maura stated again, bluntly.

Nate gave an awkward laugh and then tipped his glass back and finished off the contents. A moment later he slid his chair back from the table and stood up. He started to stalk back towards the kitchen.

Maura wondered what he was going to do from there so she stood up and followed him. He had returned to the kitchen and was just grabbing the bottle of whiskey from its place when she entered. She decided it was best to keep her distance and just watch him for a moment.

Nate poured a healthy dose of whiskey into the glass. He polished off half of it quickly before he seemed to realize that she was in the room with him. He just kind of smirked at her. "Well this is a surprise. I thought we had decided against having children."

"Actually, you had decided that you didn't want children. I never said that."

"Well that may be, but I thought you were taking care of this and this kind of thing wasn't supposed to happen."

"As long as you're having sex with someone of the opposite sex there is no birth control that is one hundred percent effective. I'm quite certain that you had some kind of Health or Human Sexuality course in college that explained the particulars of sex and parenting."

He let out some sort of breathy type laugh from his nose and took another swig of his drink. "You like that, don't you? Knowing that you know everything about everything and being able to prove other people wrong." He set his glass down on the counter. "Well at least there's one thing I know. If Jane were a man I'd be asking who the father was right about now. Suppose there's no point in that since she doesn't have the equipment."

It felt somewhat liked she'd just been slapped across the face. Some part of him seemed to think that she'd been having an affair for at least some of their marriage. She wanted to pick up something and throw it for the second time that day, but something else quickly came to her mind. "Unless you've somehow seen my best friend naked, which I highly doubt by what you just said, then you would know that Jane is intersex and could very well be the father of this baby."

The color drained from Nate's face. In a flash though a pink tinge was starting to work its way up his neck from his collar and quickly he turned quite a bright shade of red. His hand was wrapped so tightly around his whiskey glass that his knuckles were turning white and Maura feared for a moment he would actually break it.

Instead though he set the glass down on the kitchen counter and rounded the island. He grabbed his keys and walked to the front door. "I can't deal with this right now. I'll be back at some point." A moment later the front door slammed and he was gone.

Maura walked over to the couch and slumped down on it. She almost felt like she needed to check herself for hives. She hadn't had that kind of reaction to a lie in quite some time, but she almost felt like it would happen with the lie she'd just told. Even though she didn't have the reactions to lying anymore, she still preferred not to lie if there was any way that she could tell the truth.

A part of her wanted to cry, but her body didn't seem capable of producing the tears at the moment. A short time later she got back up. She might as well clean up the dining room and kitchen. It could be hours before Nate made it back and she had certainly lost her appetite.

She gathered up everything from the dining room and started to clean up the kitchen. It was as she was washing the dishes that she glanced out of the window over the sink at the dark guesthouse. Angela had moved out shortly after she had married Nate. As much as she hated having the woman who was like another mother to her so close at times, ever since she'd been married she almost missed having her there. Though, Jane never complained about her mother not being so close at hand anymore and that made movie nights just a little bit better.

Tears finally started to collect in her eyes as she thought about how much her life had changed in the last couple of years. The last fourteen months to be more specific. She and Jane still had a good relationship, but she missed some of the interactions with the family. She had been to family dinner several times since the marriage, but it just wasn't the same.

Maura thought momentarily about picking up the phone and calling Jane, but she couldn't bring herself to do it right now. Jane would instantly hear that something was wrong and want to come over. As much as she wanted her best friend by her side, she wanted the time alone too, to process everything that had happened and how. Plus she wanted to think about how she was going to break the news to her best friend, the woman that she was in love with. How do you tell the woman that you're in love with that you're pregnant and that your husband is leaving you?

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 **AN 2: So, I just want to make everyone aware that I cannot promise regular updates at this time. I am starting a four month long externship in a week and that will not leave a lot of time for writing or even posting. Since I do have a fairly good start on this I hope to be able to keep posting at least once a week if time permits. If I can't do that I hope y'all will stick with me and I will do my best to get this story to completion as soon as I can. Thank you all for already believing so much in this story and thanks Wolves for pushing me to write outside of my comfort zone. Oh, and don't forget to let me know what you thought of this chapter, thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: So, I was going to save this a couple more days, but I just couldn't wait any longer. Plus I need to say, holy smokes y'all. Thank you so much for all of the support for this story! I am overwhelmed at how popular this story has become in two chapters, but it's amazing and I hope that y'all continue to enjoy!**

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It was late. Maura couldn't even remember how long she'd been lying in bed hoping that sleep would find her. It wasn't working though. As far as she could tell Nate hadn't returned home, unless he had somehow slipped into the guest bedroom. She hadn't heard any noises that would indicate he had come home though.

Finally, Maura couldn't stand it any longer. She flipped the covers on the bed back and sat up. She quickly pulled on a t-shirt and some yoga pants. The thought didn't cross her mind that she would be showing up at Jane's in the middle of the night; she simply grabbed her things and headed out for Jane's.

She knocked hesitantly at the door of Jane's apartment at first. Then she remembered that Jane could sleep like the dead and knocked harder. It was still a couple of more minutes before the detective answered the door. When Maura saw the gun in Jane's hand as she opened the door she realized she probably should have called first.

"Maur, what's wrong?" Jane asked as she pulled Maura into the apartment. "Did something happen?"

Maura couldn't do anything but just stare at her best friend for a moment in a sort of awe. Jane always knew her better than anyone else seemed to, and she was always the one person who loved her unconditionally. She didn't know how she'd gotten lucky enough to have someone like that in her life.

"Maura," she heard as two hands cupped her face gently. She was pulled from her thoughts and now looking into those beautiful chocolate brown eyes that she loved. "Nothing happened. Well… nothing that's catastrophic, at least."

"Then what's wrong?"

"I couldn't just come to see my best friend?"

Jane smirked. "You can come to see me any time that you want. But it's well after midnight and you showed up without calling. There's something wrong. We don't have to talk about it right now if you don't want to though. We could have a sleep over first. You look exhausted."

Maura simply nodded and watched as Jane secured the door to her apartment once more and picked up her gun from the sideboard near the door. She then followed Jane down the short hallway to her bedroom. Jane proceeded in putting her gun away as Maura moved over to her side of the bed and crawled in.

Jane always talked about how comfy her million count sheets and mattress were when sleeping at her house, but there was something about Jane's bed that made her feel right at home and safe. At this moment she felt like she could just curl up in the bed next to Jane and stay right there forever.

Maura felt it as the sheets were pulled back on Jane's side of the bed just enough so that she could slide in between them. She felt the mattress dip and Jane adjust herself to get comfortable. Since this was one place where she felt the safest she thought that she should try to tell Jane what was going on with her. She could feel eyes on her and knew that Jane must be looking at her and puzzling over what could be wrong. "Jane," she whispered.

Maura's eyes closed momentarily as she felt Jane's long body slide right next to hers. Jane's legs entwined with her own and her arms slipped around her body and pulled her close. She couldn't help but smile to herself in that moment. She couldn't believe that Jane already knew what she was going to ask, but then again she could. This was Jane after all; the woman who knew her better than anyone one else.

"You know, I'd love to know what's going on in that brilliant mind of yours right about now. Penny for your thoughts?"

"I think my thoughts might be worth a little more than a penny."

Jane's chest heaved up and down easily as she nearly silently laughed at the comeback. The things she'd explained to Maura over the years were coming back to bite her right about now. "It's the middle of the night and you've got jokes all of a sudden. We should have been having sleepovers where we were up this late long before now."

Jane could feel Maura relax even further into her arms. She stayed silent and just held the woman that she loved. Maura's breaths seemed to be evening out like she was falling asleep. She was surprised when she heard Maura's small voice whisper, "I'm pregnant."

She froze momentarily, unsure if she'd just heard her best friend correctly. She scooted away from Maura slightly to try and get the woman to look at her. Her face broke into a brilliant smile when their eyes connected. "Really?" she couldn't help but ask, just to make sure.

When Maura's head nodded ever so slightly Jane couldn't help but engulf her best friend in a hug. The fact that she was slightly dying on the inside at the news didn't matter. She knew that Maura had always wanted to be a mother, even if she was afraid of turning out like own parents. "That's great news, Maur. I'm so happy for you."

Maura smiled up at her a bit shyly. "Thank you."

Jane couldn't help but think that there had to be a bit more to the story. Maura wouldn't have come over here in the middle of the night just to tell her that. "What did Nate say when you told him? You have told him, haven't you?"

The smile fell from Maura's lips. Jane had just deduced the reason for Maura's sudden appearance at her apartment in the middle of the night. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Maura sighed. "I do and I don't." She shook her head slightly as she thought of what she wanted to tell Jane versus what she should actually tell Jane about what had happened. "He wasn't happy."

"Aww, Maura. I'm so sorry," Jane said as she wrapped her hand around Maura's.

"He also accused me of having an affair."

"That son of a bitch. I'm going to kill him," Jane said as she started to move on the bed.

"Jane," Maura said as she grabbed her friend's hand once more. "You know you'll do no such thing."

Jane settled back down. Maura was right. She wouldn't actually kill him. She would consider maiming him though if the conditions were right. She could probably find the right conditions for that.

"He did say though that he knew he would have to be the father," Maura continued.

Jane's eyebrows knitted together. "Wait, if he knew he was the father, then why was he accusing you of having an affair?"

"He said that he would have been questioning the paternity if you had had the right equipment for the job."

Jane's face blanched. "He thinks we're sleeping together!" She practically rolled off of the bed and was now up pacing back and forth at the end of her bed.

Maura watched the back and forth movement for a moment. "I'm not sure if he just said that because he was angry or if he said it because he actually believes that there is something going on between us. It seems to me though that he most likely does think that there is something going on between us; otherwise why would he say it."

"I'm really sorry that you've had to put up with all of this tonight. Did you at least tell him that there was nothing going on between us?"

Maura looked suddenly sheepish. "Maura," Jane said as she had stopped pacing and pointed her finger at her best friend. "Maura please tell me that you told your husband that we were not sleeping together?"

Maura shook her head ever so slightly. "Maura!" Jane practically hollered as her arms started to gesticulate wildly and her pacing started again. "Your husband accused you of being in a relationship with me and you didn't deny it? What in the world did you say to him then?"

"Well…." Maura started and then stopped.

"Oh, no. You do not get to do that here. No hesitating about it. You need to spit it out right now. What did you tell him?"

Maura pulled her lips between her teeth for a moment and took in a deep breath. "I might have told him that you could in fact be the father because you were intersex."

Jane stopped dead in her tracks. "YOU DID WHAT!" She was hollering rather loudly at this point. The neighbors probably heard that. Good thing they knew she was a cop, or else they would probably be calling them right about now thinking that something terrible was going on in her apartment. Her head slumped down into the palm of her hand.

"I'm sorry," Maura said. She almost sounded like a child that was apologizing because they got caught doing something bad.

"Maura, what on Earth possessed you to tell him something like that?" Maura didn't make a move to say anything. "Really, you just decided to lie because you can? That doesn't seem like you Maura. I mean what the hell!"

"I don't know," Maura said quietly.

"What do you mean you don't know? As a matter of fact, I don't think I've ever heard those words come out of your mouth before. So, what on Earth made you think it would be a good idea to say something like that to him?"

Maura looked away from her and sat silently on the bed. Finally Jane moved around the end of the bed so that she could see the face of her friend. Tears were streaming down Maura's cheeks. At that moment Jane realized that she'd pushed too far.

She was at Maura's side in an instant. "Oh, Maur. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to freak out like that." She sat down on the bed next to Maura and pulled her into a side hug. "It's just so unlike you to lie about something. Especially something like that. It's going to be alright though. That part should at least be easy to prove." She laughed slightly. "I don't know what we'd do about the having an affair part though."

Jane let go of Maura and pulled back a bit. She brushed a stray hair behind Maura's ear. "It's getting late. What do you say that we try and get some sleep and we'll talk about this more in the morning?"

Maura nodded and Jane stood up. She helped Maura pull the sheets back so that she could get back into bed properly. When Maura seemed settled Jane made her way around to her side of the bed and climbed in. She quickly scooted over to Maura. She hoped that Maura wasn't so mad at her that she wouldn't let her hold her again, but Maura settled right into her just as she'd hoped. There would be a lot of things that they needed to discuss tomorrow or at least at some point, but right now she was happy to have the woman that she loved in her arms.

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 **I think that this chapter answers some of the questions y'all had at the end of the last chapter. We still have a long way to go with this story though. So? Come on, y'all know that I want to hear what you're thinking!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey y'all! So, one week down and about 16 left to go for me. I did really intend to have this up sooner, but it just didn't happen. I will keep working to get chapters to you as soon as I can. Thanks again for all of the reads, follows, favorites, reviews, PM's, etc. I can't believe how popular this story has become with just a few chapters posted! Y'all are simply amazing and awesome, and it always puts a smile on my face to think about y'all enjoying my stories. Anyway, lets get back to it! Enjoy!**

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She came awake slowly that morning. She almost didn't want to move, but her body needed to stretch out a bit. Jane was stretching out her long limbs when her brain suddenly remembered that there should be a body next to her in her bed. Her eyes shot open and scanned around the room. Maura wasn't anywhere in sight.

She had just started to sit up when she smelled coffee drifting in from the kitchen. A small smile made its way to her face. She was glad that Maura hadn't left yet. She pulled back the sheets; she might as well get this day started.

"Morning," she said as she headed immediately for the coffee pot. "I was starting to think that you'd taken off on me when I smelled the coffee."

Maura took a sip from her mug before setting it down on the counter. "Well the sense of smell is the last thing to 'wake up' in the morning. Since I wasn't really doing anything in here there probably wasn't any auditory stimulation that you would have picked up on."

Jane smirked to herself. Maura wouldn't ever change. It would actually be a tragedy if she did. "You're probably missing your fancy coffee machine right about now." She finished fixing her mug and turned to Maura.

"Actually it's not the machine I miss so much as the caffeine in general. Numerous studies have proven that it's not good for mothers to consume caffeine while pregnant. Now that I'm quite sure that is the case that means no more caffeine."

"I thought there were some studies that showed that a mother could have one cup of caffeinated coffee a day."

Maura shook her head in response. "I don't feel that there are enough studies done on the effects of that. So, it's best to just give it up completely for now."

"So, if you're not drinking caffeine, what's in the mug?"

"Organic orange juice. Orange juice is high in folic acid, which is important for baby's health while pregnant."

Jane raised her eyebrows, "Fair enough." She took another sip from her mug. "I don't have to give it up too for one of those showing my support and solidarity things do I?"

Maura laughed just a bit. "Like I would have a chance at getting you to give up caffeine and alcohol."

"Oh hell no, there would be no way I would give up alcohol for just a solidarity showing."

"Exactly my point. My baby, which means that my caffeine and alcohol have to go, no one else's."

A pang pricked at Jane's chest with the words 'my baby.' It hurt more than she ever thought it could. She would have loved to have heard the words 'our baby' come out of Maura's mouth, but she'd given up that chance a long time ago.

"Maur, I need to…" She only managed to get out half of her sentence before both of their phones went of simultaneously. It was a bit creepy that they always seemed to get a call at the same time; she didn't have time to think about that right now, there was a new case they were going to have to solve.

R&I

A soft knock resonated off of the open door to her office. "Hey," came the soft, deep voice that she loved to hear. Maura smiled and looked up from her computer. "Come in Jane."

Jane stood a few feet from her desk looking slightly awkward. It was usually how she looked when she had something she wanted to ask, but was unsure of how it would be perceived. "Something you needed?"

"Uh… Yeah I guess there is," Jane responded, only to go no further than that.

Maura slightly rolled her eyes. She couldn't understand why Jane was being so awkward at the moment. "You do know that you can just ask whatever it is that you're so nervous about?"

Jane ran her fingers thought her wild, dark locks and sucked in a deep breath. "Right, okay. So, I was wondering if you wanted to get a drink or something later. Except that I know that you can't drink obviously so I didn't…" She had trailed off midsentence. She tried again after taking a breath. "Mainly I think I wanted to ask if we could talk. Everything happened and then we got thrown this crazy case and now that we have the perp, and I thought we should probably talk."

"Why don't you come over tonight after work? You can have a drink and we can have that talk."

Jane's eyebrows knitted together slightly, but she agreed, "Alright."

"I should get finished with everything here and be home no later than 6:30. Does that work for you?"

"Yeah I should be finished with all of the paperwork by then. Is there anything that you'd like me to pick up on my way?"

Maura shook her head. "I think that I have everything I need. We can order in dinner when you get there if you want to."

"Sounds good," Jane said as she slowly inched back from Maura desk. "Better head back up and get my paperwork finished up."

"I'll see you soon Jane."

R&I

Maura had finished her work a little bit sooner than she thought and had headed home early to prepare for Jane's arrival. Just as she thought, her husband was nowhere in sight. She knew that he'd been at the house at some point in the last few days because some of his clothes were missing from the closet. Other than that though he must have found a hotel to stay in for now.

A part of her was saddened by the fact that her marriage could so easily fall apart. Another part of her didn't mind it so much since she had gotten married for fear of never finding someone else. She realized now that fear was definitely the wrong reason to get married. She had started to remember that she used to do everything on her own. That had changed when she met Jane and her family, but Maura knew that she would be able to do things on her own once again.

By the time that Jane walked through the door a few minutes after 6:30 she was most of the way through preparing Angela's recipe for gnocchi. "Wow, something smells good in here," Jane said as she walked into the kitchen. "I thought we were just going to order something in?"

"We were, but I thought this might taste better to you. Especially after that case we worked on the last few days."

"It will definitely taste better to me than take out, but you didn't have to do all of this for me. How in the world did you have time to do all of this? It normally takes close to three hours to make Ma's gnocchi."

Maura winked at her, "I have my ways detective."

Jane quirked an eyebrow and looked curiously over at Maura as she continued to work on finishing off the meal. "Really? That's all you're going to tell me about it."

Maura looked up at Jane from her place by the stove. She raised her eyebrows and smiled coyly. "A good cook never gives away all of her secrets Jane; at least not right away. Your mother taught me that."

"That sounds like my mother," Jane said as she made her way over to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. It hadn't occurred to her until this moment that even after Maura got married that her favorite beer was still always in the fridge when she was over here. She knew in that moment that she was definitely going to have to talk to Maura.

Jane sighed slightly as she grabbed a bottle of water for Maura and closed the door. She popped open her beer and took a drink. "Have you heard from him?" she asked quietly as Maura finished plating the gnocchi for both of them.

"I haven't," she replied as she moved the dishes over for them to eat at the island.

"I'm sorry," Jane said as she moved their drinks over to them and moved back around the island to grab their silverware. "I would have thought that he would have come home by now or at least tried to talk to you."

"I can't say that I'm completely surprised by it," Maura said as she blew on one of her gnocchi and popped it into her mouth.

Jane mirrored her actions and moaned slightly in her approval of the food. "I do think that we should about Nate though."

"Alright. What is it we need to talk about regarding him?"

"I think I understand why it is he thought we were having an affair," Jane answered nervously.

Jane could tell she now had Maura's full attention on the subject even though she hadn't said or asked anything else. She set her fork down on her plate and looked away momentarily to gain back her resolve to say this. She hadn't ever planned on telling Maura about the conversations that she had with Nate, but he had somewhat forced her hand when he accused Maura of having an affair. She looked back and Maura and knew that she had to tell her the truth.

"He told me to stay away from you," Jane said hesitantly. "More than once." She reached over and placed her hand on top of Maura's. "He's thought that something was going on between us since the day you were married. The first time he approached me about staying away from you he said that he saw something in both of our eyes that day."

Maura almost couldn't stand to listen anymore. She knew then that she had been right all along, Nate had married her for her name and nothing more; otherwise he would have stopped the wedding that day. She stood up and pulled away from Jane, moving from kitchen quickly.

"Maura, Maur," Jane said instantly rising to her feet to follow. She quickly caught up to the other woman, grabbing her arm to stop her and pulled her in to an embrace. "I am so sorry. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you before now. And I'm so sorry that I let him drive a wedge between us a few times. I couldn't do it though. I couldn't give up my best friend, no matter what it might have made him think."

Maura couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her husband had tried to drive a wedge between her and her best friend and he had succeeded, even if it was only for a short time. She was angry and sad all at once; at both her husband and her best friend. She couldn't make herself pull away from Jane at this moment though. "Why didn't you tell me?" It was all she could think to ask while being embraced by her best friend.

Jane sighed. "I don't know for sure Maur. The first time I thought he was just being a little protective and paranoid or something. I can understand a guy feeling a little threatened by a best friend, like the friend is suddenly going to decide she doesn't like him being in the picture or something like that. I was surprised though, by the fact that he said that he saw something in our eyes the day of the wedding. Thought I'd done a better job of covering it up than that as I walked you down the aisle."

They both pulled back from the embrace to look at the other. Maura eyes shined with unshed tears. "I can't believe he acted like that the whole time we were married. I really thought that he was a good man."

"I still think he is somewhat of a good man Maura. The fact that he thought we were having an affair isn't all that big of a deal. We both know we love each other. We knew it the day we walked down that aisle together and you married him, so you can't really blame him for figuring that out and suspecting something."

"He married me for my name Jane, not because he loved me and wanted me as a spouse."

"A lot of people get married for the wrong reasons. Doesn't always mean that the marriage will fail. I think that people can grow to love one another over time if they really want to."

"I think we're past that point now Jane. Maybe if I'd known all of this before it would have been something that we could work on, but now I think it's over."

"Don't say that Maur. I mean, what about the baby? Doesn't your child at least deserve to have two parents if it's at all possible? At least talk to him first before you just decide your marriage is over."

Maura couldn't take anymore. She pulled away from Jane completely. "At least talk to him first. I think he made things quite clear the other day. What you don't know, Jane, is that in his mind it is entirely my fault that I'm pregnant. I knew that he didn't want kids so I was supposed to be the one taking care of those kinds of things so that we didn't have children. He doesn't give a damn about me and he will do the same to this baby. At least if I leave now I might have more of a chance of getting him to give up parental rights."

Jane took a couple of more steps back from Maura just to give her some space. She stuck her hands in her pockets and felt somewhat like a child that was being scolded for something they did wrong, but didn't quite understand why. She somewhat understood though. She hadn't known all of that about what Nate had said before. She felt that Maura was justified in leaving. Maura deserved someone who would care about her and her child. She deserved someone who wanted to give her the world, and Nate hadn't turned out to be that man like they both thought he would.

"I've done a lot of things on my own," Maura finally said breaking the silence. "I can do this on my own too."

"Be alone? You're going to be lucky if Ma doesn't move back in here five minutes after you tell her." She had meant it as a joke, but Maura wasn't very receptive to her humor right now. She took a few steps closer to Maura knowing what she was going to have to do now.

Jane stopped a couple of feet from Maura and looked her deeply in the eyes. "Please just think about this a little bit more once you've calmed down. Talk to him first. If it's mutual that things won't work between you fine, but it at least deserves some sort of conversation first." She could see anger starting to rise up in Maura again and she held her hand up to stop her from saying anything. "I'll go."

With their food long forgotten Jane made her way to the door and started gathering her things. She turned as she opened the door. Though Maura wasn't looking directly at her she knew Maura would be paying attention. "Again, I'm sorry that all of this is only coming out now. I'll talk to you later." With that she was through the door and pulling it gently closed behind her.

Maura sat heavily down on her couch. She couldn't believe what a mess her life had turned into in just a few short days. It seemed as though she were living a nightmare. She couldn't be that lucky though; this wasn't something she could just wake up from. A tear slowly made its way down her cheek. Though it might be hard to see it at the moment she knew that things were going to work out just how they were meant to; even if she did end up all alone.

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 **So, cue a bit of dramatic music right here after that one, right? Now Maura has no husband and no best friend. Or does she? Guess we'll find out with the next chapter! As always, thanks for reading and you know wolves and I are anxious to know what you thout of this chapter so click right down there in the box and leave us a little somethin'! Please?**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Hey y'all! So I just want to say really quickly thanks for all of the reads, follows, faves, and reviews on this story so far and the last chapter. Y'all are awesome. Sorry this chapter is a bit late, this has been a crazy week. I also need to give a shout out to Wolvesjr34. Not only did she allow me to step into a universe she created and write a sequel to her story, she also greatly helped me out with the dialogue between characters this chapter when I got stuck. Enjoy!**

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Maura was sitting at her desk reading over the reports that had just come back on a case. She was finding that they were only confirming what everyone had already suspected when her phone began to ring on the edge of her desk. She picked it up and was surprised to find that it was her husband calling her.

"Hello," she answered quickly.

"Maura," Nate said quietly. "I was wondering if it would be alright if I came by tonight. I think there are some things that we should talk about."

"I think you're right. There are definitely some things that we should talk about and tonight would be fine. I should be home at the normal time."

"Alright, I will see you tonight then."

Maura heard the click of the phone disconnecting in her ear. It had been almost a week since their fight. In all of the time that they had been together she couldn't remember them having a fight where they didn't speak for this amount of time. Usually they made up within the first twenty-four hours.

The fact they hadn't spoken yet lay with both of them. Some might say that the fault was equal between them, but Maura couldn't help but feel a little more guilty for her part in it. She had said some things that she shouldn't have, especially the one that involved Jane. She needed to set the record straight on that point.

Maura set her phone back on her desk and returned to the reports she had been looking over. She needed to maintain her focus on work at the moment. She couldn't let a mistake happen and then later have someone try to claim her personal life had affected her work.

R&I

Nate's car was in the driveway and Maura could see the lights on inside the house as she pulled in. Knowing he was in there made her think of all of the times she had asked him to come home a bit early from work so they could spend time together, but he'd never managed it. He could make sure to be at the house before she got home though when he really wanted to.

She found him sitting on the couch watching TV as she walked through the door and set her things down. He had it on one of the news stations where they almost constantly talked about stocks. There had been times in the past where she thought watching sports with Jane was boring; watching the stock channels with Nate at times was a whole other level of hell while watching TV.

"Hi," he said as he noticed her entrance. He turned down the volume on the television, "I hope you don't mind that I showed up a little bit early and came on in."

Maura just shook her head, "Not at all. Per our agreements, this may be my house according to the legal documents, but we're still married and that makes it your house too." For now, she thought to herself.

"So, I wanted to apologize for my behavior a few days ago." He watched as Maura made her way over to one of the chairs by the couch and took a seat. "I just wasn't expecting news like that and I completely overreacted. Also I would like to apologize for it taking me so long to come to my senses about all of this."

He paused there and Maura decided to make use of the pause to get some things off her chest. "I have some things to apologize for as well. I am sorry that I led you into thinking that I was having an affair. I just want to clarify that there is nothing going on between myself and Jane. And there is no way that Jane could be the father of this child. That was something that I should have never said; it was wrong of me to be selfish like that and say those things about her and to try and upset you."

Nate studied his wife for several moments, content in her sincerity he offered up his palms apologetically. "I probably deserved that for lashing out like I did and accusing you of having an affair in the first place."

Maura smoothed out non-existent wrinkles in her skirt and folded her hands in her lap. She couldn't help but wonder why he would think such a thing as that about her. She needed to know. "Why would you accuse me of having an affair?"

He placed his palms down on his knees and rubbed nervously, his eyes looked past Maura's shoulder at a spot on the wall in an attempt to make this easier to discuss. He loved Maura, but he wasn't stupid. He had seen the tears begin to form in her eyes on their wedding day when Jane let her hand go. It was easy enough at the time to tell himself they were tears of joy, but as something deep inside of him knew that it was more than that. His wife and her best friend shared a connection he only fantasized about having with Maura.

A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he brought his gaze to meet that of his wife, "Where do you want me to start? The way you look at her? The way she looks at you when you're not looking? The fact that I often feel like a second class citizen when Jane is around? I'm your husband Maura, and I feel like you'd rather be with her!"

Maura couldn't take sitting still. She got up and started to pace a small path. "What would you like me to say to that! She was the first person in my entire life who just accepted me for the way that I was. She was the first person to really become my family. We are always going to have that with each other."

She absentmindedly started to worry the ring on her finger as she paced back and forth. "I thought I'd tried with you Nate. I honestly thought that I tried. There were nights when I asked you to come home early so we could spend time together and it was like it fell on deaf ears. I didn't know what else to do."

"My job is important Maura," he said as he stood to his feet as well. "You know that. I've had some very important cases come my way in the last year. It's not something that I could turn down if I had a shot at making partner one day."

"So I guess that means that my job isn't important? It's no big deal that I'm the Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts?"

"That's not what I said and you know it."

"Then please tell me what it is you were saying."

"You know I want to make partner. To do that I have to make sacrifices and so I've made them."

"Then maybe it turns out that we want different things for our lives."

"Maybe we do," Nate said as she shoved his hands in his pockets. "Maybe it turns out that you don't want a workaholic. Which I didn't think you minded when we first started seeing each other." He turned and looked at her squarely for a moment. "Or maybe you want a workaholic that works more on your schedule."

Maura crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at the carpet for a moment. "If you thought that's what I wanted why did you tell Jane to stay away from me?"

"Because I didn't want to give you up Maura! I loved you… love you."

Maura started to pace again, quietly. After a minute or so she finally spoke again. "Is it love? Or is it loved? You said love at the end, but you don't really love me enough to want to raise a child with me, do you?"

Nate inhaled a slow breath and let it out again before he looked her deep in the eyes. All he could do was shake his head.

Tears suddenly threatened to spill from Maura's eyes. Though, she wasn't sure if it was out of sadness or happiness. She returned to the chair to sit down once again. At least it was all out in the open now.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly as me moved closer to her. "I never wanted to hurt you like this. I'm just not cut out to be a father."

"I suppose we should have the lawyers draw up the paperwork?"

"We can do that. I'll set up some movers to come over this weekend to pack up the rest of my things. If that's alright with you?"

Maura nodded. "I am on call this weekend, but there should be plenty of time for them to come in and pack up your things." She once again smoothed non-existent wrinkles out of her skirt. "There is one thing that I would like though and based on things you've said I think that you'll be open to the idea."

"What?"

"I also want to have the paperwork drawn up for you to terminate your parental rights to this baby."

He bit back wanting to reply immediately with no. He stood quietly for a few moments though as he contemplated it. Based on everything he'd said so far it made sense. He didn't want to be a father. It wasn't just that he wasn't ready, he had other things he wanted to do with his life. The thought that he would have a child out there someday who might want to know about him pulled at his heartstrings.

He realized that he could use this in some way. He could probably get just about anything he wanted from her in return for signing the paperwork to give up his rights. He wondered if he wanted to be that kind of man though.

"Alright," he replied at long last. "Have those drawn up as well and I will sign them. With all the pre-nups we had drawn up beforehand the only thing that would have taken some time would have been the fact that you're pregnant. Since I've agreed to sign my rights away it shouldn't take all that long to dissolve our marriage."

"Right. I suppose that's all of it then. I'm sure the lawyers will know if there's something that we've forgotten."

"Okay, I guess I'll be going then. I'll let you know when I get a hold of the movers and what time they say they can come."

"That will be fine," Maura replied as she rose from her seat.

Nate grabbed his suit jacket and slid it on as he headed for the door. The light clacking of Maura's heels could be heard following him. He turned as he opened the door. "I'm sorry," he whispered one last time. He leaned in and placed the lightest of kisses right at her hairline on her forehead.

Maura watched as he made his way off of the porch towards his car. She didn't close the door until after he had backed out and was headed down the street. She leaned on it after it was closed and let out a long slow breath. She was all alone now.

* * *

 **So, Maura did what Jane said and gave Nate a shot. Now we know where that road would have led and we know what road we're about to take, right? Thanks for reading, and I would love to know what you think about everything so far or hear what you think is going to come with the next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Hey y'all! So, I'm back a little bit earlier this week. I mean to get this posted last night and I fell asleep before I could get it done. (Which is pretty much the story of my life by the time I get away from my externship at the hospital during the week; I'm asleep before I can get things done.) Anyway, thank y'all so much for reading, reviewing, favoriting, following, etc. after this last chapter. I really liked what some of y'all had to say about what went down with the last chapter and I hope you like what follows up now. Enjoy!**

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She woke to the phone ringing. As she cracked and eye open she realized that it was the middle of the night. She glanced over at her phone on the nightstand to make sure it was the call she thought it would be. Why did it seem like most murders in Boston had to happen in the middle of the night?

Jane reached out with her long, muscular arm and grabbed the phone. "Rizzoli," she said with sleep heavy in her voice. She listened as dispatch gave her the address of the scene. "Yeah, tell them that I'll be there in 30 minutes."

She had probably grossly overestimated the amount of time it would take to get there at this time of the night, but it might be a happy surprise for the others when she arrived sooner than they had planned. Or she could stop and get coffee. Right now that sounded like a really good idea. It had been days since she'd slept well and she'd been running on a lot of caffeine as a result.

Twenty-five minutes later she pulled up just outside of the crime scene tape. It had taken her a little longer to get coffee than she had thought it would. Apparently the people who normally had to work at this time of morning were even less enthused about doing their job as she was. At least she had made it to the scene in the time that she'd told dispatch.

Jane stepped under the tape held up for her by a uniformed officer and quickly spotted Korsak milling about. She glanced around the scene as she made her way over to him to find out what was going on. "Korsak," she called as she approached him.

"Hey Jane," he replied. "The scene is just around the corner of the building over there. The doc has been here about five minutes. Susie should be here sometime in the next couple of minutes with the CSRU van. I've been trying to track down some witnesses. There are several people hanging around, but nothing from any of them so far."

"Right, well, with this neighborhood you're not likely to get anything either. What do we know so far about the vic?"

"African American male, mid-thirties, about 5'10"; he didn't have any ID on him so we'll have to run prints once we get back to the station. Not sure yet about the cause of death. I haven't been back since the doc got here. We couldn't see any signs of trauma upon first examination and we weren't going to move him."

Jane nodded her head and took a sip of her coffee. "Okay. Thanks Korsak. I'll head back and see what Maura has to say."

She made her way around the corner of the building. Techs were there already processing the scene under the guidance of Frankie and Maura. For the time being though Maura was crouched over the body. It appeared as though she were doing a thorough examination of the body, as though she were looking for something specific. Jane didn't see any blood around the way a lot of their scenes were set up.

While she was pretty sure that Maura already knew she was in the area by the sound of her boots, Jane still made sure that she moved around to the opposite side of the body so that Maura could take in some semblance of her figure before she spoke. "Based on everything I see so far I'm thinking you're going to need to take him back to the morgue before you can give us an idea on the cause of death."

Maura continued to look at the body for a few moments before saying anything further. "You would be correct in thinking that. I've studied the body and so far I can't find anything that makes this a suspicious death other than he's just out here behind this building this time of night." She moved slightly to stand up and nearly lost her balance. Jane quickly grabbed her hand to steady her. "Thank you," she said as she laid eyes on the woman for the first time in a couple of days.

Both women nearly gasped as they took in the look on the others face. It looked like it had been days since both of them had slept. With this possible murder, it now looked like it could be even longer before they got some decent sleep.

Realizing that she had probably been staring at her friend too long Maura quickly continued with what she had been about to say. "The liver temp puts the time of death at about 6 hours ago. Other than that though, I would like to get the body back to the morgue so that I can perform a more thorough exam and autopsy as well as run a tox screen."

"Sounds good," Jane said as she started to head back to Korsak to see if he had anything else.

Maura made a move to have Susie and the other techs come over to move the body. "Oh," Jane said turning suddenly. "Korsak said that there was no ID. We need to make sure to get fingerprints so we can run them."

Maura nodded. "Of course," she replied as she picked up her bag. "I made a note of it when speaking to Korsak and I will also make sure that Susie knows. She will probably gather that tonight and get it running when she gets back to the morgue."

"Thank you."

"Not a problem, it's my job." With that Maura turned back to have the necessary people come in to remove the body and take it back to the lab.

Jane made her way back over to Korsak to find out if he had anything new. When the results didn't seem to have anything new, she decided they could probably call it a night for now. It would be the morning before Maura would start the autopsy and there wasn't much more for them to do until they could try to get a positive ID on the vic.

As she made her way back to her cruiser Jane caught Maura heading back to her Prius out of the corner of her eye. A part of her tried to keep her feet moving in the direction of her cruiser. Her heart just wouldn't let her though. The next thing she knew she was laying her hand on Maura's car door to keep her from stepping into the vehicle.

Maura looked almost shocked at her presence, but she didn't care anymore. Something was very wrong with her best friend and she needed to know what was going on. "What happened?"

Maura closed her eyes and sighed. "Jane, I don't want to talk right now."

"Can't really blame you for that, you do look like the walking dead right now. How long has it been since you had a decent night's sleep?"

"I've probably had a decent night's sleep more recently than you've had one," Maura quipped back.

"That may be, but you still owe me an explanation."

Maura made a noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a snort. "I don't owe you anything. We're not in a relationship."

"Then what about our friendship?" Jane urged. She wasn't about to let this go. "We're best friends and as a best friend I think I deserve to know if there's something going on with you."

Maura shook her head. Tears were starting to shine in her eyes. "I just can't right now, Jane. I can't do this here."

"Then what if we go back to my place and talk about it?"

"Jane, I'm really not in the mood. It's late and I'll have to be up first thing in the morning to start on the autopsy."

"So, I'll follow you back to your house. We can talk a little bit once we get there and then you can get in bed and get some sleep before you have to be back at the morgue."

Maura just stood there staring at her, or quite possibly staring through her. She couldn't tell which. "Please Maur. I don't like where we're at right now. I just want to know that we're okay."

"We are okay Jane. It's just been a rough few days."

Jane finally took a few steps back. She'd tried everything she could think of, short of getting on her knees and begging, to try and get Maura to open up so they could talk and work things out. If Maura was saying that they were okay though, she didn't really know what else could be said at the moment about how they'd left things.

"Then let me come home with you. You know we'll both get some sleep if I do." It was one last plead to try and get somewhere with her best friend. She couldn't take being apart from Maura any longer.

"Alright," she acquiesced at last, with a sigh. "I'll meet you at my house in a few minutes."

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 **Well, I suppose that Jane going to Maura's is a step in the right direction, right? I guess we shall see what's to come when they get there. ;-) And now y'all know this is my somewhat shameless plug for you to review because I really do love anything and everything that you have to say about a chapter. Thanks!**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Hey y'all, I'm going to have a bit longer of an AN at the end of this one. For now I just want you to read and enjoy the chapter! Thanks!**

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The alarm started beeping what seemed like too soon the next morning. As her senses kicked in though she realized there were long, lithe legs tangled with hers and strong, but gentle, arms wrapped around her torso almost cradling her.

Maura shifted gently so that she could reach for her alarm to turn it off without disturbing Jane too much. The second the noise stopped though she heard the disgusted groaning of her friend who still wanted to fight waking up. Maura turned back over so that she could look at the stubborn detective who was still pretending to sleep.

She smiled as she guided a small lock of hair behind Jane's ear and earned a smile in return. "Morning," Jane said as she cracked open one eye. "Did you get any sleep?"

Maura's smile widened a little. "Yes," she said quietly, "The best night I've had in a few days."

"Good," Jane said as she started to stretch. She reached out and took her best friends hand. "I'm glad that we had a chance to talk a little bit last night." She looked Maura in the eyes now, "I'm sorry that Nate turned out not to be the kind of man that either of us thought that he was. It's going to be okay though. I'm here, and you're not going to be alone in this."

Maura looked at her best friend past the tears that were starting to glisten in her eyes. "Thank you, Jane. I know that we've had our share of differences lately, but I'm glad that we can still be friends. While deep down I know that I could do this on my own, because I've done so many other things that way, I wasn't looking forward to it. It's wonderful knowing that I'll have you."

Jane chuckled a little. "Just remember you won't have just me. Ma will be around too. I wasn't kidding when I said that you'd be lucky if she didn't move in with you again."

A sly grin appeared on Maura's face, "And how do you know that I haven't already asked her to move in again?"

Jane plastered on a face of mock shock. She knew better. "Maura Isles, I would hurt you if you'd done that already. No, really though, Ma would have been freaking out and calling me non-stop talking about baby things if you'd already told her. Not to mention that she probably would have roped me, Frankie, and Korsak all into helping her move her stuff back in here by now if you had."

Maura chuckled as she made a move to get off of the bed. "It just doesn't ever stop with you does it?"

"What?"

"Your detecting, Detective."

Jane shook her head as she also moved to get out of the bed. "Well if you can't turn off your google mouth I don't see what the big deal is that my detective skills don't turn off." She winked at Maura so she would know she was kidding. "Besides, right now I need my detecting skills. I need to figure out where you hid my instant coffee so that I can have some."

Maura made a disgusted face as she headed for the bathroom. "Why don't you just use the machine?"

"Well I would if that machine were at all possible to figure out. I swear it takes a Doctorate to be able to figure out how to use it. Plus since you're not drinking caffeine there's no need to worry about the machine since I like instant just fine."

R&I

Jane knocked on the door to the operating suite later that morning. It appeared that Maura was somewhere in the middle of her autopsy. "You got anything for me yet?" Jane asked as she fully entered the room.

Maura looked up through her safety glasses at Jane. "Nothing that's really conclusive yet. I was just getting to my favorite part," she smiled.

"Ugh," Jane groaned slightly. "How do you even stand to do that while you're pregnant? I would think that it would trigger morning sickness."

Maura simply shrugged her shoulders. "I did find some fibers that didn't seem to match the victim's clothes on his body. I sent them to Susie. She also took his fingerprints. Last I had heard from her she was running the fibers for a match and the fingerprint was still running as well."

"Wonderful," Jane commented with a slight irritation. "That is just what I wanted; to have a John Doe that we might never find anything for, except that he was murdered."

"I also found what looked like a hypodermic puncture mark on the body. He doesn't appear to have a drug problem of any kind, so something could come back in the tox screen."

Jane seemed to perk up slightly at the news. "Well that's more than we've had to go on with some cases," she said trying to remain positive.

"Yes, it is," Maura agreed. She turned back to her autopsy and Jane stood watching her for a moment. "Will you go to my ultrasound with me?" she asked suddenly as she continued with her work.

Jane noticed that it sounded like there was a lot of hesitation in the question, but also a lot of excitement as well. It seemed as though Maura really wanted her to go; was excited to share the experience with her, but nervous that her question might not be well received. "I thought you already had one of those things done?"

"I did, yes, but there's more than one done during pregnancy," Maura replied as she looked up from her work once again. "Last time the doctor had to use a transducer probe and the image wasn't all that clear. Though it would normally be a few more weeks before I was supposed to have another one done the doctor agreed that another one wouldn't hurt, just to check on the baby's progress."

Jane had only understood about half of what had been said, though that was typical when she was with Maura. "Okay, if you really want me there then I'll be happy to go."

The brightest smile she'd seen from her best friend in a while lit up her face. "Oh, thank you Jane! I think you're really going to like it. We'll get to hear the baby's heartbeat and maybe even make out some features."

"So, when is the appointment?"

"Right," Maura said as she tried to calm down a bit, "It's the day after tomorrow, during our lunch hour."

Jane paled slightly when she heard the day. "Uh, right. Okay. I… will… be there."

"Jane, are you alright? Is there something wrong? You don't have to go if you don't want to."

"No, no. It's fine," Jane quickly responded. "It will be fine. I'll be there."

"I was hoping that it would be uneventful that day and we could just go to the appointment together."

Jane nodded. "That actually sounds like a good idea. I'm glad that you've got this all thought out." She smiled at her best friend. "Anyway, I think that I'll head over to the lab and see if Susie has anything for me and then check back here once you get the report written for all of this."

R&I

Jane shook her head as she headed down the hallway of the basement two days later to meet Maura to go to the appointment. Ultimately she knew that she was doing the right thing. She needed to be here for her best friend, despite what anyone else might think.

"Hey," she greeted as she knocked on the door. "I finished up my paperwork a little bit early so I decided to head on down. Hope that's okay?"

Maura smiled as she watched the Detective walk into her office and sit down on the couch. "Actually, you have good timing. I just finished up my paperwork as well." Maura closed down the lid on her laptop. She rolled back from her desk and stood to gather her purse and her jacket.

They easily made their way out of the station to Maura's car and climbed in. "So, how far is this place?" Jane questioned.

Maura's attention didn't sway from the road as she answered the question. "It's about ten minutes form the precinct. We should be finished in plenty of time that we can grab a bite to eat on the way back to the station."

Jane nodded, "Sounds good to me." She turned her attention out toward the street and started watching everything that they passed. Her mind wandered as the surroundings became a blur. Her mind was running though several different scenarios of what her life, a life that included Maura, could have been if she hadn't let go fourteen months ago. Could she and Maura have started a life together? Would they be dating, married, preparing to have a baby?

"Jane," Maura said rather forcefully, pulling her from her thoughts. She must have missed Maura saying her name more than once already. "Sorry," she quickly apologized as she realized that they were stopped in a parking lot. They had arrived at the doctor's office while she'd been daydreaming.

She stood in awe as she looked around at the waiting room. Most doctors' offices she'd been to felt sterile and cold; you wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. This waiting room was the exact opposite. It was warm and inviting here; a place that you wouldn't mind waiting if the doctor were running behind on their appointments.

There was something else that she noticed about the office. There wasn't anyone else in it. It was completely empty, almost as though it were closed. Something had to be going on here; she just couldn't put her finger on what. "Maura, she's waiting for you in exam room two," the woman said as they made their way to the desk in the waiting room.

"Thank you Jennifer," Maura said politely as she redirected herself to a doorway for them to go through that presumably led to the exam rooms.

Behind the door was similar to the waiting room out front, in that it was also rather warm and inviting. It wasn't as cramped as you would typically find an office. Instead of having as many exam rooms as possible packed into the space there were just three, and they all looked to be rather spacious.

"Maura," a woman greeted her best friend as they made their way into the middle exam room.

"Hello Carol," Maura greeted in return. "Thank you for doing this during your own lunch hour."

That explained the empty lobby. Now that she was in here, Jane was feeling somewhat nervous. What if things didn't turn out right? Would she be the right emotional support for that kind of situation? She took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"Oh, Dr. Carol Williamson, I'd like you to meet my best friend, Detective Jane Rizzoli. I asked her to come along today, I hope that's alright."

"Yes, of course. As long as you're happy and comfortable and things remain calm, you can have anyone here that you like."

Maura turned now to Jane, "Jane, this is my OB/GYN, Dr. Carol Williamson."

"Pleasure to meet you, Dr. Williamson," Jane greeted as she reached out to shake the doctor's hand. "This is quite the office you have here."

"Wonderful to meet you as well, Detective. Please, feel free to call me Carol though. I prefer to be on a first name basis with my patients. We usually spend quite a bit of time together through the whole process from conception to birth. That's also part of the reason that we have the office set up the way we do; we want it to be comfortable for our patients to be here."

"You certainly do a fine job of that, in my opinion. And please, call me Jane."

The doctor nodded at her and turned her attention back to Maura. "Alright Maura. If you could just lay up here on this exam table for me and open your blouse, this should only take a couple of minutes."

Maura followed the doctor's instructions. A couple of minutes later Jane watched as Carol then squeezed out the gel and prepared to rub the transducer over Maura's abdomen to create the picture. Jane held her breath without even realizing it.

A couple of minutes later they were all holding their breath as the machine remained silent. It hadn't yet started the thrumming that signaled the baby's heartbeat. "It's alright I'll find it in just a minute," Carol reassured them.

Another minute or so ticked by as the transducer was passed slowly over Maura's abdomen. Jane could see that Maura's eyes were brimming with tears and she took a hold of her hand for support. In that instant though the machine started thrumming away. Jane and Maura both let out a breath they didn't realize they'd been holding.

"There we go," Carol said as she started to adjust the monitor. "The position had changed a little bit from last time, but everything appears to be just fine. You look to be right at eleven weeks. Take a look."

Jane looked up at the picture on the monitor. She stood there stunned. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Though slightly fuzzy simply because it was an ultrasound, there was very clearly a baby there. She could make out the head and the little arms, and even little legs.

She looked back down at Maura and saw one of the biggest smiles out of her friend that she could ever remember seeing in the time of their friendship. Jane squeezed Maura's hand that she was still holding to let her know that she was still there. She couldn't help but look back up at the screen. Tears started to well in her own eyes now. At this moment she knew one thing for certain; she was still in love with her best friend, and now this baby too. She knew she could never have them, Maura needed a friend not a love interest, but she loved them nonetheless.

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 **AN2: So, this is probably my last post of the year. I just wanted to say thank you all for making it a wonderful year. Without awesome readers like you, there wouldn't have been any reason to write and post stories here. Without an awesome fellow writer, wolvesjr34, this story wouldn't even be possible; thank you wolves for allowing me to play around in your universe a bit. I am excited to see what this next year is going to have in store for me. I hope you all will join me in it as I finish off this story. Thanks! Oh, and don't forget a review on this chapter! I think this one was my favorite one so far and I'm curious to know what you thought of it as well.**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN1: Hey y'all Happy New Year! Thank you all so much for making last year so awesome and I know this year is going to be even better! Thanks for all of the reads, follows, faves, reviews, etc. on this story. I do have some things I need to share, but I will save that for the end. For now, enjoy!**

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She was standing in her kitchen wondering what the hell she was thinking when she said that she would make dinner. She didn't cook. It wasn't that she didn't know how to, her mother had made sure it was a skill that she had picked up over the years. No, it was more that she just really didn't like to cook. That was one thing that she loved about having Maura as a friend, Maura wanted to cook. At this moment it would have been nice to have Maura here.

A few minutes later and there was a knock on the door. Well she was down to two options now. Either they could order in food, or she could get dressed and they could go out. It looked like she would find out which one it would be as soon as she opened the door.

Jane's face lit up as she opened the door and saw her girlfriend standing there. "Hey babe," she greeted her as stepped back and waited for her to come inside. She leaned down and placed a light peck on her lips. "How was your day?"

"About the same as always. I'm just glad that I didn't have to work late after all and got to see you. I wasn't sure if I would get to this week or not since you cancelled our lunch date the other day."

Jane watched as she made her way over to the couch. Jenny was only slightly shorter than her with short, light brown hair and pale blue eyes. "Right," she finally responded as she made her way over to the couch as well. "I do have some bad news though. It appears I took on more than I thought when I said I'd cook. Do you want to just order something in, or would you rather go out tonight?"

Jenny looked up at her, "I think I'd rather just stay in with you."

"Sounds great," Jane said as she made her way back to get the delivery menus she kept in a drawer. "I'm sorry again about lunch the other day. There's just been a lot going on."

"I can understand that," Jenny replied as she joined Jane to look over the menus. "So what are you in the mood for," she asked a little more seductively that necessary.

"Nothing that I'm finding in these menus," she quipped quickly as she smirked at her girlfriend. "However, I do see something else that I am in the mood for."

Jenny's eyebrows rose and she laughed. They always seemed to easily fall into a flirty banter when with each other. "Well, I'd say that we could do something about that. However, I am starving. I had a client that called during my lunch break and didn't get a chance to eat anything."

Jane pouted slightly. "So, Chinese then?"

R&I

They were in their second episode of a Friends rerun when the doorbell rang. "It's about time," Jane said with huff and she pulled herself up off of the couch. "Usually their delivery service is really good."

Jane grabbed her wallet before she reached for the door knob. She froze as the door started to open; in her doorway stood her best friend rather than the delivery guy. "Maur?"

"I was out looking at some things for the baby when I realized something. Carol printed out pictures of the ultrasound the other day. She made two copies and I realized that I still had both of them. I thought that you might want one to have; I certainly don't need both of them. I thought that this might be a good way for the both of us to track the baby's progress through the ultrasounds."

She stuck the ultrasound photo out for a still surprised Jane to accept. "Plus I wanted to show you some of the things that I found while shopping." She indicated to a bag that she had been holding this whole time.

"Is everything okay over here sweetheart," a sweet voice asked coming from just behind Jane. A couple of seconds later the woman stuck her head around Jane.

"Oh," Maura said taken aback with the shock of Jane having company over. Especially when that someone was calling Jane sweetheart. "Sorry, I didn't realize that you had company."

"No, no, it's alright," Jane offered as an apology. "I suppose it was about time for this to happen." She stepped back a bit so that both women could get a look at the other. "Jenny, I would like you to meet my best friend Maura Isles. Maur, this is Jenny, my girlfriend."

"Pleasure to meet you," Maura said as she stuck out her hand graciously.

"Likewise," Jenny said as she shook Maura's offered hand. "Jane has mentioned you quite a bit; especially how you usually help her and the team solve their cases with your forensics work."

From there everything went into awkward silence. All three of them stared at each other for a moment as Jane tried to figure out what to do. Finally Maura stepped in and saved her.

"Again, I apologize for disturbing you while your girlfriend was over here. I will see you tomorrow at the office."

Before Jane could say anything more Maura was retreating down the hall. As if almost in a daze Jane closed the door. Jenny watched on from a few steps away. Jane looked down at the picture in her hand momentarily before looking back up at her girlfriend.

Jenny quirked an eyebrow at her. "Care to explain to me what's going on?"

Jane's mouth turned down at the corners slightly. "I suppose I do have some explaining to do." More than anything she felt like she needed to go after Maura. She knew there was no way to get out of giving Jenny an explanation.

She searched for the right place in the story to start. It was going to be a long one no matter where she began. When it seemed like words and an exact place to start were going to fail her she held up the ultrasound picture for Jenny to look at.

Jenny studied the picture quietly for a moment. "Is this your way of telling me that she's your surrogate and carrying your child? Because I am fairly confident that it's not biologically yours and hers. Pretty sure I would have known about that by now."

Jane couldn't help but let out a small laugh at that. What was it with people her having a penis? Jane shrugged her shoulders. "What can I say? She's my best friend. The baby is hers. She found out that she was pregnant and then when she told her husband he flipped out and left her. She's my best friend. She needs me."

Jane looked down at the picture in her hand one more time. "I need to go," she said definitely. "I need to go now."

"Whoa, hang on a sec," Jenny said as she placed her hands up. "I would say that I'm definitely missing something here. Why do you need to go?"

"I just need to go talk to her," Jane explained briefly as she gathered up her things.

"Okay, you're going to have to do a little bit better than that Jane. I'm the one here finding out that you've been helping your pregnant best friend while cancelling plans with me and yet she's the one that you need to talk to."

Jane stopped. She sighed and she ran her fingers through her hair. "I don't quite know how to explain it. She's my best friend. She has been for years. I would do anything for her and she would do anything for me and that's how it's always been. And right now she's hurt beyond belief because I didn't tell her about you."

Jenny just shook her head. There was a lot more to this than Jane wanted to admit to right now and she didn't feel like being a part of it. She moved towards the couch to gather her things.

"I'm sorry," Jane continued. "I should have told you the truth about why I was cancelling. After some of the things that she's been through in the last few years Maura likes to keep her privacy. I was trying to respect that and be there for her. I need to be there for you too. It wasn't fair of me to exclude you when you are such an important part of my life now."

Jane moved so that she was near her girlfriend. "Forgive me?" she asked softly as she reached out to take Jenny's hand.

Jenny searched the chocolate brown of Jane's eyes as she took in everything the woman had said. Finally she nodded. "I can understand if you need some time. I think I'm going to go for now though. You should go talk to her. I think it's better to do it now rather than wait and let her stew." She gathered up the last of her things and walked to the door with Jane following.

She turned just before she stepped out of the door. "You'll call me later?"

Jane leaned down and placed a loving kiss on her girlfriend's lips. "Yeah," she said softly. She watched as Jenny left before she gathered her own things and headed out. She needed to get over to Maura's as soon as she could. There was no telling what Maura was already thinking about this whole situation.

With her keys in her hand she ran down the stairs of the building. The food she and Jenny had ordered long forgotten.

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 **AN2: Okay, so I just got some news a couple of days ago. For the next month I am being switched to the night shift for my externship at the hospital. That could potentially slow down my time that I have to write. However, after this month I am set to go back to days, though I'm not sure that when I switch back that I'll have that much time to write either. It's just going to depend on how many cases I'm able to get every day that will get me closer to my end goal number of cases I have to have. I am a little bit ahead on writing, so I will try to continue with regular updates for as long as I can. Just stick with me y'all. One of these days it's all going to pay off and I will definitely get this story finished. Thanks!**

 **Now that that is out of the way, how badly do y'all want to hurt me for this chapter? You can be brutally honest; I don't mind a bit. I want to hear whatever it is that you might have to say about this chapter or where you think the story might go from here now that I've dropped this little (or maybe big) bomb. See y'all soon!**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: So, can I just say WOW! If I want a response from all of you readers I guess all I have to do is throw in an unexpected plot twist. Lol. I just want to say that it was in the plan from almost the beginning of the concept for Jane to have a girlfriend. However, as I was writing the idea of where and how to present the girlfriend changed and that is how it came out when written. I think that actually turned out a bit better than what I had been planning on. More will be explained about it all in chapters to come, but for now we have this one. Thank you all for all of your thoughts and reviews on the chapter as well as continuing to read, follow, and favorite it. Enjoy!**

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Jane ran up the steps to Maura's and immediately started pounding on the door. She knew her best friend was inside. "Maura, come on!" she called loudly when her knocks went ignored. "I know you're in there and we need to talk!" She had worked herself up some on the drive over and she was probably letting it out in the wrong way by pounding on the door, but she desperately wanted Maura to let her inside.

Another round of pounding at the door went unanswered. Jane started to pace back and forth on the porch as she thought about what to do next. After all, she had a few options. She could keep knocking and hope that Maura would answer eventually. She could leave and give Maura some time and space. Her last option would be to use the key she still had for emergencies. She could walk right in and force Maura to listen to her.

The only problem was that she didn't know how Maura would respond to any of the options. Maura could leave her standing out here in the cold all night if she just kept knocking. If she left then Maura might potentially end up more hurt that she was right now. If she went in and forced Maura to listen to her there was the chance that Maura would end up some combination of hurt and angry.

"Screw it," she muttered to herself as she started searching her pockets for her keys. "Finally," she muttered again as she pulled them out and started searching the key ring for the right key. In another minute she had the key in the lock, turning it so she could turn the handle and open the door.

She set her keys down on the table by the door as she slowly made her way deeper into the house. "Maura," she called softly. The open concept of the house made it evident that Maura wasn't in the living room or kitchen. A few lights had been left on to give the house a soft glow. Jane walked around a bit. Maura was most likely in her own room, but she walked around just a bit downstairs to check a couple of the other rooms before she headed up to check the bedrooms.

The lights were off in the guest bath and guest bedroom. The doors were open on both and it was clear that Maura wasn't in either. The door was closed to Maura's bedroom. Jane could see a soft glow emanating from the crack at the base of the door.

Jane edged her way slowly to the door. She wasn't entirely sure why she was being so secretive about it, but it was happening. Gently she wrapped her hand around the knob and turned. She let out a soft sigh that the door was unlocked.

Her gaze shifted over to the bed. Maura was buried somewhere underneath the sheets and duvet. Given the lump that she could make out under the covers, it appeared as though Maura was curled up in almost a fetal position. Her heart broke slightly at the sight. She'd done this. She might not have intended to, but she had; hopefully there was some way that she could fix this.

"Maura," Jane said gently as she sat down on the edge of the bed behind Maura. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you that I was dating. That was no way for you to have to find out."

She waited. There was no response from Maura, but it seemed like she could feel slight movements underneath the covers. "Maur," she pleaded, "please talk to me."

Another moment passed, but there was still no acknowledgement from her best friend. She wasn't going to go away that easily. Jane stood from her spot on the bed and stood over the other woman. Carefully she reached up and took ahold of the duvet. She gently started to edge it back, prepared for shouting or whatever else might come from trying to force Maura to talk to her.

Jane wasn't prepared for what she saw when she did draw the covers back. She didn't see tears of hurt and emotional pain on her best friends face. Instead, she was seeing tears that streamed down Maura's face from a physical pain. "Maur," she said quickly as she pulled back the covers further.

She gasped at the sight that she saw. Now she understood why the figure underneath the covers was curled into a fetal position. Her eyes scanned quickly over the rest of Maura, assessing that the blood was actually coming from where she thought it was. There was too much blood.

Faster than she could almost comprehend Jane had her phone in her hand dialing 911. She quickly explained the situation and told the dispatcher that she needed an ambulance. She slid the phone back into her holster once she hung up. She needed to check on Maura more now that she knew help was on the way.

"Maur," she begged as she tried to get the other woman to look at her. "Maura, it's going to be okay. There's an ambulance on the way. I need to know if you're hurting anywhere else."

Her best friend's body really started to tremble now. This didn't bode well. She had been trained in some emergency care; part of that was watching for shock. Everything in her right now told her that Maura may be experiencing shock and that was not good at this moment in time.

Jane placed her hand on her best friend's cheek. "Stay with me Maur," she pleaded a little more. "The bus will be here any minute, okay? Just stay with me."

Finally, Maura's eyes shifted to her and there was some recognition in them that Jane was there with her. There was still pain in them mixed with more tears. She shifted slightly though and Jane knew that was a good sign.

Jane reached down and pulled Maura into her arms. She knew there wasn't anything else that could really be done; she just had to be here with Maura for now until the paramedics could get her in the bus and to the hospital. "It's alright," Jane continued to coo softly into Maura's ear. "It's going to be alright."

What felt like hours later, though it was only a few minutes, Jane heard the sirens pull up outside of the house. She left Maura only long enough that she could holler down the hallway upstairs so the guys would know where to find them.

"She… she… she's almost eleven weeks pregnant," Jane started to stutter as she moved away from the bed to let the paramedics in to get a look at Maura. "I don't know what happened. I found her like this and called. She hasn't spoken to me and I'm afraid she's going into shock."

"You did just fine," one of the guys said to her. "We'll take it from here."

Jane sat on the floor next to the wall while they worked. She watched everything they were doing, but it was like watching a silent movie, she didn't really hear a word of it. What had happened? What had she done?

"Hey," the medic said as he laid a hand on her shoulder. "We're ready to transport her now."

Jane nodded. "I'm coming."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered definitively which left no more room for questions about the subject.

"Okay, follow me then."

Jane followed only a few steps behind the gurney down to the ambulance where they loaded Maura. She quickly climbed up the couple of steps into the back of the bus and took a seat next to Maura. Jane looked over at the gurney to take in her best friend's condition.

Maura had an oxygen mask on, but she was looking slightly better. She reached up to take her oxygen mask off. Jane placed her hand over the top of Maura's other one and shook her head. "Leave it on." Maura obliged.

One of the doors closed and one of the paramedics hopped in just before the other one shut behind him. A minute later they were moving. The medic continued to assess Maura and her vitals. Other than the beeping of a couple of monitors and the sirens on the bus going things were silent.

At this moment Jane wished that she could just pinch herself and wake up from what felt like it should be a nightmare. This wasn't a nightmare though. Jane rested her head in her hand and thought about all of the events of the day. She wished more than anything that she could take away what happened earlier. If she could Maura might not have had a miscarriage, and they wouldn't be on the way to the hospital right now.

A tear made its way down Jane's cheek. "We're less than two minutes out now," the medic informed them.

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 **And I'm pretty sure by not that y'all are ready to really hurt me. I know, I know, but it just had to be this way. I'm prepared for all of the feelings that you may have about what has happened in this chapter as well, so let me hear your reviews!**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Hey y'all! Just wanted to say thank you so much to all of you who read, followed, favorited, and reviewed on this last chapter. I am constantly blown away by all of the wonderful feedback you give even when we've had a rough couple of chapters. Thanks again. Enjoy!**

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Her eyes cracked open and then quickly slammed shut again. Though the light in the room was dimmed it was still bright to someone who had been unconscious for a few hours. Slowly, she tried opening her eyes again. Once she could handle the intensity of the lights, Maura's eyes began to scan the room around her.

She could tell that she was now indeed in a hospital room. They must have moved her here after ascertaining that she was stable enough. After looking at some of the other things around the room her eyes finally landed on a cot that was set up beside the bed. Maura could see her best friends dark locks splayed out on the cot and her breaths appeared even. Maura knew that Jane must be sleeping and she didn't want to wake her.

Maura couldn't help but smile to herself. Even when they were mad at each other, well when she was mad at Jane to be more accurate, Jane made sure that she was at her side when she needed her most. A slight tear started to streak down her cheek as everything from earlier started to come back to her now. If Jane hadn't come over to find her she wasn't sure where she would be or what else could have happened to her.

There was a movement on the cot beside her as Jane's body started to stretch out some. "Hey," a sleepy breath greeted her. "What are you doing awake? They didn't think you'd be up until tomorrow."

Maura's eyes flitted over to the clock on the wall for a moment. "Technically…" she started before being silenced by Jane's stare. She couldn't help but smile at the other woman. "Why are you awake? You should be getting some sleep yourself."

Jane shrugged as she sat up more on the cot. "Just haven't been able to sleep much. Guess I've been worrying about you."

"I'm sorry," Maura said as her eyes shifted down to the blanket across her lap.

"Aww, Maura, no. You don't have anything to be sorry for."

"I do," she said as she nodded her head. "I got mad at you when I found out that you had a girlfriend that you didn't tell me about."

"Maur… If anything I should be saying sorry to you." Jane got up from the cot and moved to the edge of the bed. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about Jenny. I didn't really know if it would turn into anything. Then it started to get more serious and by the time that I thought I might want to say something you found out that you were pregnant. I wanted to give you some time to get all of that settled out before I said anything and that plan backfired on me."

Maura avoided Jane's gaze still. None of this really had to do with the fact that Jane hadn't told her about Jenny. No, the big issue here was the fact that Jane was with Jenny at all. After all, part of the reason that Jane had turned her down was because she was in a dangerous job and might not come home one night; and that wouldn't be fair to her if that happened.

Apparently it had just been words. Maybe Jane meant them in some fashion, but apparently not completely. Why was it alright for her to not come home to Jenny one night, but not for her? It might be irrational thinking on her part, but it felt like it was more that Jane just didn't want to be with her; that maybe she just wasn't good enough for Jane.

Jane sighed, "You still look exhausted. It's probably going to be a couple more hours before the doctor comes in for rounds. Why don't you lie back and get some more sleep?"

Maura shrugged as she leaned back against the bed. She felt Jane adjust her blankets slightly before she moved back to the cot. Maura knew she should say something to Jane, but she didn't know what. She didn't really know how to just tell Jane what she was actually feeling about the whole situation. Jane gave her away, so what else was there really?

R&I

At some point she must have closed her eyes and fallen back to sleep because the next thing she knew there was a knock at the door. It was the doctor coming in to do the morning rounds. Since she already knew the process of what had happened to her in having a miscarriage and what they needed to do it didn't take him long to explain everything from the night before. He also explained that she would need to follow up with her own doctor in a couple of days and that she could take care of anything else that she might need.

"Now, I'll have the nurse draw up your discharge papers. You will need someone to be with you for the next couple of days in case there are any complications."

"Oh, well…" Maura hesitated.

"It's fine," Jane piped up from the seat she had taken over in the corner when the doctor had come in. "I'll be with her."

The doctor had glanced slightly over at Jane as she spoke and now glanced back to Maura. He gave her a look that asked for her clarification about Jane's comment. She nodded slightly and he smiled. "Well as long as that's settled we should have you out of here soon then Mrs. Isles."

Maura flinched slightly at the missus remark. She was suddenly glad that she had decided that it would be beneficial for all of the paperwork she had to do to keep her own name. It was only the missus that reminded her that she was in fact married. "Thank you," she said as he headed for the door.

"You don't have to stay," she said softly after he had closed the door to her room. "I am a doctor; I know how to take care of everything myself."

"Like hell," Jane sat as she continued to sit in the chair.

"I mean it Jane. You have work you should get back to at the precinct. I'll be fine."

"Oh yeah? And how exactly do you think you're going to get home if I'm not here to go with you? Last time I checked you had to have someone to take you home to be released."

Maura closed her mouth. She hadn't entirely thought that through yet. There were a couple of options that she had. "I could have them call Nate. He is listed as my next of kin on my forms."

Jane remained silent, but Maura gathered that if looks could kill she'd probably be buried by now.

Maura sighed a little and then asked, "Do you have my cellphone?"

Jane nodded silently, just watching.

Maura held out her hand waiting to see if Jane would actually produce it and let her have it. With some reluctance Jane finally stood and pulled it out of her pocket and handed it over. A minute later Maura had scrolled through her contact list to the number that she wanted. She double checked the exact time to make sure that she wouldn't be calling too early.

She smiled as she heard the voice on the other end of the phone greet her. It had been quite some time since they had spoken, but she was treated as though almost not time elapsed. "Hello Angela," she greeted.

Maura could see Jane's eyes nearly pop out of her head at the mention of her mother's name. The death glare came back a moment later. "I was wondering if I could ask a favor of you."

When she had received a guarantee that she could ask anything of the older woman she took a breath. "I was wondering if you could bring me home from the hospital?"

Maura was pretty sure that Jane could hear Angela's exclamation about what she had just asked across the room where she was seated. "Angela," she said to calm down the woman's excited and rapid fire questions that were now going. "Angela! Everything is fine. I did have something happen last night, Jane has been with me, but now she needs to go back to work and the hospital needs someone to be here to take me home. So, I was wondering if you could come."

She had to listen to a little more rambling on the phone. "Yes, I will explain everything to you later. Hopefully I'll be discharged fairly quickly." Maura nodded as she listened to the last of what Angela had to say. "I will see you soon then," she agreed before she hung up the phone.

Now she turned her focus to Jane. "Problem solved. You can go to work now."

"It's your funeral telling my mother all of this. You know that she's going to be upset that you didn't tell her sooner and that she had to find out like this."

Maura simply shrugged her shoulders. "At least now you can go to work. They need you there working on the case, not at my house taking care of me."

Jane huffed as she stood from her chair and made her way over to the bed. "I'm not completely oblivious you know," she said as she looked Maura directly in the eyes. "You're not going to get rid of me that easily. We're going to have to talk about everything at some point. It might as well have been sooner, but since you're being stubborn I suppose we shall have to put it off until after work tonight."

She took a couple of steps back from the bed now. "If you'll excuse me, I think I'll go grab a cup of coffee to have until Ma gets here to stay with you."

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 **So, hopefully this one wasn't as rough for you; though I know there are probably a few questions that you still have about everything. Thanks for reading! As always, I would love to hear any feedback that you may have on this chapter, or any of the others, so don't forget to leave some for me. (Though I have little time these days for writing your reviews do help keep me going.)**


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Hey y'all! So, wow. You're reactions and feedback to last chapter were awesome. Thanks to all of you who read, followed, favorited and reviewed. It means so much to me that you love this story and constantly want more. Just a quick note. The hospital I'm at has decided to give my school two morning slots instead of one morning and one night. That means I am headed back to mornings a week earlier than I had expected. While that's awesome news for my school it kind of sucks for me (and you) because I had more time for things while on night shift. (Plus it was nice not getting up at 4am to get there on time for morning shift.) So, in a few weeks it might start taking longer to get chapters out, but I will be getting them out as soon as I can. I want to finish this story for y'all as much as you want it finished. Thanks for the understanding. Now, why don't we get back to this story? Enjoy!**

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Maura sat on the couch just resting while Angela flitted around the kitchen. She wasn't even sure what exactly the other woman was doing in there at the moment. She was surprised. For as much fuss as Angela had made on the phone about her being in the hospital she hadn't asked a single question since she had arrived there and subsequently brought her home.

While she had mentioned up front to the other woman that she really didn't need anyone to stay with her, the Italian woman wouldn't hear of that happening. Maura knew that would likely be the case when she had called her to come, but at the moment she found it preferable to be here with Jane. At least with Angela she was around the house doing something; Jane would have been right here on the couch on top of her and she didn't want that just yet.

It seemed that Angela had finished what she was doing in the kitchen for the moment. The woman cautiously approached the couch and sat down on the other end. Maura could tell that she wanted to ask, but didn't know how to broach the subject. She decided to just say it so she wouldn't have to ask. "I miscarried last night."

There it was; that look she didn't really want to see out of anyone. It was the look where people just wanted to tell you how sorry they were that you had lost a baby, but didn't quite know how to phrase it. She didn't want that look from people. Maura realized that the only look she hadn't seen that out of was Jane. Angela seemed to know that she needed to remain silent because she wasn't saying anything in response.

"Thank you, for coming. I just couldn't handle more time with Jane today."

"What all has happened Maura? I feel like I am extremely out of the loop on things here."

Maura sighed and then pulled in another deep breath before letting it out. Now that she thought out it, Angela was extremely out of the loop when it came to her life. It was hard to realize that as actually being possible since she had been so used to Angela knowing everything about her life for years.

She started to explain everything that had happened the past few weeks. She decided it would be best to omit the whole lie that she'd told about Jane. That really wasn't something you ever wanted your mother to find out about. She did explain how Nate had accused her of having an affair though.

Maura got up to yesterday in her story. "I went shopping yesterday, just to start looking at some things; Jane was supposed to go with me later so we could start picking out things to get. I hadn't felt well for a couple of days, but I was excited after the last ultrasound." She paused there. The ultrasound brought up some emotions that she didn't really want to deal with at the moment. Not to mention the fact that she wasn't sure if Jane had told Angela about her girlfriend, so she didn't know if she was allowed to say anything about it.

"I went to Jane's because I realized that I still had both copies of the ultrasound," she continued. "I was also hoping that we would be able to talk, but when I got there we ended up having a misunderstanding so I left. By the time I got home I felt so much worse that I went to my room…" Maura shook her head slightly to try and get some of the pain of the memories off of her.

"You don't have to tell me," Angela said understandingly as she placed a hand on top of Maura's. She looked at her steadily, "I know it's hard, so you don't have to tell me anymore."

Maura looked over at her pseudo mother and raised her eyebrows. Angela nodded her head. Maura released a breath she didn't realize that she'd been holding. That was certainly something that she didn't know about the other woman. She wasn't even sure that anyone really knew that about Angela. "Thank you," she whispered.

Angela moved over next to her on the couch and pulled her into a side hug. "You're welcome sweetie. I'm happy I could be here for you."

Things were quiet for a few minutes. "You can tell me if I'm prying too far, but what did you and Jane have a misunderstanding about?"

Maura sighed; she knew that she would be asked this question eventually. "The thing is, I would answer that but I don't know if I'm supposed to or not." Angela gave her a confused look. She decided to approach the subject from a different point. "Has it seemed to you like Jane has started to move on lately?"

"Move on how?" Angela asked in return.

Again Maura sighed. How was she supposed to get through this without potentially giving away something that Jane wanted kept private? "Has she been seeing anyone?"

Angela leaned back on the couch beside her. "You found out last night that she's been seeing someone?" Maura couldn't do anything but nod. "I had suspected as much, but hadn't said anything to her about it. She's missed some of the family dinners the last few months. She's claimed that she was just busy with things, but it's been hard to get her on the phone at times too. Even when she would answer it was like she was trying to hurry me off of it. It doesn't surprise me that she didn't tell me, but it sure surprises me that she didn't tell you."

"I screwed up," Maura said as she laid back against the couch as well. Angela lifted her arm and wrapped it around the woman who was like a second daughter to her. "I should have fought harder for her and I didn't. Now it looks like it's too late to do anything about it."

Angela smiled knowingly to herself. The only way that Jane had ever been able to hold off on Maura was because she met Nate. If he hadn't stumbled into the path then she was sure that her daughters would be married already. "The two of you are still here. I think there's still time if you want to do something about it."

Maura shook her head. "She has a girlfriend. I don't want to interfere in that."

"Maura," Angela said shaking her head disbelievingly. "That's how it works sometimes. I was seeing another man when I met Frank. I wouldn't go out with him at first because I was involved. He was so persistent though. Finally, I agreed to go out with him. And from that I found out that he was a lot better match for me than the guy that I'd been dating." She looked over at Maura and shrugged. "I think everything has to happen for a reason."

Maura shook her head once again. "If she really wanted to, she could have stopped everything. She could have said something the day of my wedding, or any time before then, and she didn't. She didn't want to be with me because she didn't want to leave me one night by not coming home from the job; at least that's what she said. She doesn't seem to think that's a problem for anyone else that she's with. She doesn't really want me," Maura ended sadly.

"Just give it some…" A knock at the door interrupted Angela's reply. She patted Maura on the leg, "I'll go see who that is."

Not even thirty seconds later Nate came barging into the living room. "What the hell happened?" he demanded.

Maura gave him a confused glance. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

"I mean, why the hell were you in the hospital and I had to hear it through gossip?"

Maura just continued to stare at him for a moment. "I don't really see why that is any of your business."

Nate stalked across the living room and bent down so that he was face to face with Maura. "What the hell did you do to our baby?" he asked almost threateningly.

"Hey, back up," Maura heard as Nate was suddenly pulled away from her. Jane was there now. She'd grabbed onto Nate's collar to pull him back. She hadn't done anything to him other than just move him away. "She didn't do anything to the baby. Not that you would care."

"What…" Nate growled as he made a move towards Jane.

"Nate!" Maura yelled at him to keep him from going after Jane. He backed off immediately and looked at her. "She's right and like I said, this isn't really any of your business."

"You're my wife, Maura."

"While that may be technically true for the moment, you did walk out a few weeks ago. You didn't want much of anything to do with me when you found out that I was pregnant. What goes on in my life doesn't really concern you now."

Nate started to pace back and forth. "I'm still your husband! If you make decisions I should be able to be there to at least have some kind of say in it." He stopped pacing and turned to Jane. "You," he growled at her again. "You did this!"

"Whoa," Jane said as she backed up a couple of steps when he advanced toward her. "I don't know what you think is going on here, but I didn't do anything."

"You did everything," he said as he took a couple more steps towards her. "You let her go that day. You were supposed to let her go so that she could be mine, but you never did. Every time I turned around there you were in some other part of our lives that you had no business to be in." He took a couple of steps back when he could see a slight bit of panic reach Jane's eyes. He knew better than to freak out a cop too much, especially one that still happened to have her gun on her hip. "You were either supposed to keep her that day and leave me standing there at the altar, or hand her over and get out. You didn't do either one and now it's cost me my wife."

Maura began to rise from her spot on the couch. Jane moved to help her when she held up her hand. When she finally made it to her feet she realized that she had everyone's attention. "I am not some possession that could be taken from you. I may be your wife, but that doesn't mean that I belong strictly to you. I had life before you and there is nothing that required me to give all of that up just because I wanted to share my life with you." She took a couple of steps towards the man that she had once loved dearly. "Enough of this; we are through and you need to let it go."

Nate huffed as he shoved his hands in his pockets. He knew that there wasn't going to be any more to this conversation, so he turned on his heel and left. The three women left in his wake just stood looking at one another for a moment.

Jane could tell that Maura needed to be back on the couch. She made her way over to her best friend and helped her to get comfortable. Once Maura was settled, Jane took a seat next to her. She sighed. It had been a long day and that hadn't been something she'd expected to find when she made it back to Maura's house. "No more husbands for you," she said with a wink so Maura would know she was kidding.

The joke had the intended effect as Maura giggled. "No, I don't think I want to go down that road again."

They were so wrapped up in each other they missed Angela sneaking out of the house. Normally she would be big on saying goodbye, but with her girls at least talking some she didn't want to take the chance of interrupting anything that might start to mend fences between them.

"You look exhausted," Jane noted. "Rightfully so, but I think it's about time to get you into bed."

Maura nodded and started to move slowly. Suddenly though she stopped and looked at the stairs. She'd completely forgotten what had happened in the bedroom last night. She wasn't sure that she wanted to go up there and face any of it.

Jane placed her hand on Maura's arm. "It's okay. I cleaned everything up and changed out all of the bedding. I get it if you still don't want to go in there, but you won't be faced with any of it if you do."

"When?" she whispered.

Jane gave her a confused look. "When what?"

"When did you change out everything?"

"When I had a cab come pick me up at the hospital and bring me back here after you were out completely. They said it would be hours before you woke up and we didn't have anything with us. You didn't have clothes or your phone. I came back for those, but when I went in the bedroom I knew that you couldn't come home to that, so I took care of it. Then I packed your things and went back to the hospital to be with you when you woke up." Jane shrugged. "Not a big deal."

To Maura though it was a very big deal. She'd never had anyone in her life that would do something like that for her. Tears shone in her eyes as she leaned over and wrapped her arms around her best friend. There was still a lot that they needed to talk about, but for now she was so grateful to have someone like Jane in her life.

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 **So, does this answer some of those questions that y'all had after the last chapter? Do some of y'all think that Jane is as much of an ass as she seemed last chapter? Do you think this is them actually starting to connect and get back to who they were before? Come on now, you know I want to know what you thought about this chapter so leave me a review with whatever you thought!**


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: Hey y'all. So, it seems like it's been a crazy busy week. It's the end of the month which means that I am just that much closer to graduation; and so glad to be. Thank you all for reading, following, favoriting, and reviewing on the last chapter. I think I have the best readers an author could ask for. I'm pretty sure at some point Wolvesjr34 gave me some pointers with this chapter so I could get it finished. And let's face it, without her this story wouldn't exist at all, so thank you wolves. Now let's see what are favorite girls are up to. Enjoy!**

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She sat quietly at a table in the café with her leg underneath the table bouncing up and down at a brisk pace. She wished that she had time to meet somewhere else, but they were finally getting a break in their John Doe case, and she needed to be close at hand for when they were ready to move.

Jane knew that her girlfriend wasn't pleased with her. It had been almost a week since Jenny had left her apartment and then everything else had happened that night. Jenny had tried to call a couple of times and she ignored the calls both times. She had text her back and said that she was extremely busy and that she would call later. Usually, that didn't mean days later like she'd done though.

She subconsciously bit at the corner of the nail on her thumb as she waited. Finally she sensed someone coming into the café and looked up. In walked her girlfriend through the glass doors. Her smile widened a bit, though it was a hesitant smile.

"Hi," Jane greeted as she stood when her girlfriend neared the table.

"Hello," Jenny replied politely.

Things seemed awkward between them as Jane motioned for them to take a seat. "I'm sorry," she quickly apologized as they took a seat.

Jenny just raised her eyebrows as her arms folded across her chest.

Jane took in a breath. "I have a lot that I need to apologize for, and I'm sorry that this is where it had to happen." She paused as she looked in her girlfriend's eyes. "Can I get you some coffee or anything?"

Jenny just shook her head. "No, I'm fine thanks. I don't have much time. I do have to get to the courthouse soon for one of my cases, but you said that it was important that we talked."

"It is," Jane urged. "I also need to apologize for being distant this past week. I know we've been needing to talk about how we left things, but some things came up and I failed in getting back to you. I'm sorry."

"You know, a quick phone conversation of the fact that some things came up could have gone a long way in this talk holding off. Instead though you just ignored my calls and text me that you were busy."

"I know that now," Jane said as she sighed. "I've never been much good at relationships and everything that is supposed to go along with them."

"Well as long as you're trying, I don't mind if you mess up," Jenny said as she finally unfolded her arms and leaned towards the table now. "I would like to know a little bit more about what's been going on though. So, what came up that was so important?"

"Well…" Jane said as she hesitated. This wasn't really something that she felt she should be sharing, but she felt like she needed to say something about what she'd been doing this past week. "It's complicated," she finally finished.

Jenny quirked an eyebrow at the statement, "Complicated? How so?"

At that moment Jane's attention was drawn to someone coming through the café doors. She flushed slightly when she realized that it was Maura. Jenny had noticed that something had caught Jane's attention and turned to see what was going on. Things fell into place in that instant.

"So, that's where you were. Now it makes sense."

"No," Jane replied as her gaze quickly shifted back to her girlfriend. "Well, yes, sort of. It wasn't like that though. Something happened the night that you left and I had to be there. Maura needed me."

"And what if I had been calling because I had needed you? Would you have dropped everything to come to me?"

"That's not fair," Jane said as she leaned forward and tried to keep her voice low. She didn't want anyone, especially Maura, to over hear what they were saying. "She's my best friend and I had to be there for her. I thought we had at least cleared it up that I would have times like that with her before you left that night."

"Yes, but Jane, you also apologized that night for not including me on things and I thought that you were going to try and do that more. Yet, here we are again with you excluding me from important things that are going on."

Jane sighed as her hand came up to rub her eyes. Jenny was right. They… she, was supposed to be sharing things that came up and she hadn't bothered to do that. She felt like this was different though. What had happened wasn't something that you just went around sharing with people; even people that you loved. This was personal for Maura, and it should be shared by her if she chose to do so.

"I know," Jane finally said, "But there are circumstances where I can't tell you everything. I'm sorry that it's like that. I don't want it to be, but this isn't something that I can share with you."

Jenny's attention shifted off to the side, which pulled Jane's attention along with hers. Maura was just a few feet from them now. "Hey, Maur," Jane tried to say without it sounding awkward.

"Jane," Maura greeted in return. "Jenny," she said as she turned her attention to the other woman, "It's a pleasure to see you again. I don't want to interrupt anything; I just wanted to say hello on my way back to get caught up on all of my paperwork."

"I'll see you later Maura," Jane replied as she watched her friend make her way out of the café towards the elevator. Her attention returned to her girlfriend once she'd seen Maura step on the elevator to head down to the morgue. Though with the glare that she was getting from her girlfriend when she looked back made her wish she hadn't looked.

"You're in love with her," Jenny stated flatly.

"What?" Jane asked in complete shock."

Jenny looked around at the other people in the café. "Perhaps we should take this outside."

Jane looked around as well. Though there weren't that many people in here for this time of day she knew that many of them had their ears open, even if their attention appeared to be elsewhere. She nodded silently and stood up at the same time as her girlfriend and followed her outside and down the steps of the building.

The two women walked down the street side by side, silently. When Jane felt like they were an appropriate distance away from someone important overhearing them she placed her arm on Jenny's to stop her. "Now, what were you talking about back there?"

Jenny scoffed, "Oh Jane," was all she could say for a moment. She shook her head. "Are you really going to try and deny that you love her?"

Jane started to open her mouth to say something but quickly shut it. After a short sigh she asked, "What makes you say that I'm in love with her?"

"I can see it in the way that you look at her. I know that somewhere you have feelings for me, but when you look at her everything about you is more intense." She shook her head. "It's hard to explain exactly, but I can see it. So, just tell me."

Jane blew out a long breath and went to lean on the building they were standing in front of. Jenny followed and stood close to her. "Yes," Jane finally admitted as she looked at the woman she had really started to love over the past few months. "Maura and I fell in love with each other years ago. There was always one thing that I could never get over; me not coming home to her one night."

Jenny's eyebrows rose in question, but she remained silent waiting for Jane to explain further.

"I am stupid and reckless sometimes. Maura's had to put me back together more times than I can count and she's been in the hospital when I wake up more than I care to think about. I became her everything. And I knew that I would take everything from her if I didn't come home one night because of my recklessness. So, I turned her down. I gave her up. I handed her over to Nate because I thought at least that way she could find some sort of happiness. I didn't think I'd find anyone else that I might feel the same way about, and then you came along. But yes, even now, I'm still in love with her."

"I see," Jenny replied simply as she looked back down at the ground. "Thank you for finally being honest with me." When she looked back up she could see tears shining in Jane's eyes. She couldn't help but reach up and swipe at a tear that started to make a track down Jane's cheek.

Jane reached up and wrapped her hand around that of her girlfriend. "It sucks being in love with two people at the same time. You love them both and don't want either of them to get hurt, but you know in the end that one of them will."

Jenny smiled, "Well, I might be able to help with that."

Jane shook her head as she pulled away slightly, "No. Please don't."

"I think I have to, Jane." Jenny pulled her hand from Jane's and started to slowly ease away. "I don't want to be involved in some kind of twisted love triangle. And you, you need to figure out what it is you really want. If you want her, then buck up and go after her. If you don't want to be with her maybe you should consider separating yourself from her more."

"No, Jenny, please," Jane said stepping towards her. "We can make this work. Maura and I are friends and things between us can always stay as they are now where there's nothing more than that between us."

Jenny put a hand up to halt Jane's progress towards her. "I believe you about that. What I'm saying though, is that there probably should be more to it. I know that you love me, but I don't think I'm the one that you should love. You already have her and now have the chance to love her and you're wasting time here trying to convince yourself that you love me more. If you really are reckless sometimes, take this time to be reckless in going after who you really belong with instead of settling." With that she turned on her heel and strode off.

Jane's kneejerk reaction was to go after her. Something inside of her knew that wouldn't be the best thing to do though. Deep down she knew that Jenny was only telling her the truth. Jenny wasn't the one that she loved, and yet here she was trying to convince herself that she did just because it could be easier than trying to start something with the one that she actually loved. She loved Maura, and it was about time that she stopped being afraid of what could happen one day and take a chance.

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 **So, I do think that the end of this chapter will be quite pleasant for a few of you. I know you've been itching to know when that little scene was going to take place. Now that it's here I am curious to know what you all thought of it. Good riddance? Will Jane buck up as she was told? You know I love hearing what you think, so don't forget to tell me!**


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Hey y'all! So, I'm sorry that this update has been a couple of weeks in coming. Thank you for all of the awesome feedback on the last chapter. This chapter wouldn't be possible without Wolvesjr34's help. I was completely stuck and she stepped in and helped me co-write this chapter. You would probably still be waiting on an update if she hadn't been so awesome and helped me out. (Maura dialogues is basically all her; she wants you to know that so you can tell us if she writes Maura better than I do.) Anyway, I hope you like the chapter and enough out of me for now. Enjoy!**

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Jane looked up from her paperwork at the clock on the wall. It was almost quitting time. She looked down at the stack of papers on her desk she'd completed that day. Surprisingly she'd gotten a lot done today, even though her mind had been in other places.

She pushed her chair back a bit and stretched before she stood up to grab her jacket. There was really only one place that she wanted to be, but she'd been avoiding it since earlier. Jane headed towards the elevators that would take her out of the bullpen and down to the morgue to see what Maura was up to.

Jane stood quietly outside the office of her best friend. She could see Maura working on her laptop at her desk and she stopped so that she could take in the moment. Jenny was right. She needed to do something about her feelings for Maura; to be a bit reckless when it came to Maura for once.

"Are you just going to stand outside of my office all evening watching me, or were you going to come in at some point?" Maura asked as her attention seemed to remain on her computer.

Jane's mouth opened to ask exactly how it was that Maura knew she was standing outside of her office, but her mouth quickly shut. She looked down at her feet at her normal work boots and knew that Maura had probably heard her coming down the hallway.

Since Maura already knew that she was there it would have been awkward to do anything but go inside Maura's office. So, she made her way in and sat on the couch. She stayed quiet though; not wanting to interrupt whatever it was that Maura was working on.

"So, is there a reason that you came down here?" It was another question that was thrown out there while Maura continued to look at her laptop screen.

Jane found it a bit strange that Maura was dividing her attention. Generally she liked to focus on one thing at a time, but maybe Maura wasn't working on anything that was too important. She shrugged her shoulders before she realized that Maura might not be looking at her to see that response. "I don't know. Just thought I'd see what you were doing after work tonight. Thought that you might want to grab some dinner if you didn't have other plans."

"I had just planned on a quiet night at home."

"So have dinner with me."

Finally Maura looked up from her laptop. "I think I'd rather just head on home actually. Besides, I figured you'd have plans yourself."

Jane cleared her throat as she said, "No, actually I don't." Her tone from there turned a little melancholy. "In fact, my schedule is pretty open for the foreseeable future."

"Oh?" was all Maura could think to say in response. She'd comforted Jane in the past over lost relationships, but she wasn't sure she could handle doing something like that; especially right now.

Jane shrugged her shoulders. "It is what it is I suppose. So, dinner?"

Maura couldn't help but shake her head. It was typical Jane to skirt around the emotions that she was feeling by distracting herself with something else. As much as she didn't want to be Jane's distraction right now Jane was her best friend. "As long as dinner takes place at my house, then dinner will be fine."

"Chinese food?"

"I probably would have let you get away with pizza, but Chinese it is," Maura said as she shut her laptop and started to reach for the desk drawer where she kept her purse.

"Wha…" Jane started to say as Maura looked up at her. She knew Maura was both joking and being serious, but she wasn't about to argue since Maura has said Chinese food. Sure, she could have and most likely gotten her way, but it was enough for now that they were going to have dinner together.

R&I

They were sitting on the couch now with a couple of empty plates sitting on the coffee table. There was a few inches space between them still, but they were sharing the same blanket. The documentary they had started while waiting on the food was just a few minutes from being over at this point.

"Would you like to watch some SportsCenter after this?" Maura has to ask to try and break the silence. She figured that Jane would have had something to say about what had happened earlier that day, but so far she had remained silent about it.

Jane sighed. "Nah, I don't think I feel up to it. I should probably just head home; it's getting late."

"Jane, it's not even 8:30 yet."

"I know, but I just don't think I'm up for much of anything else. Thanks for having dinner with me though."

Maura sat quietly for a moment as Jane stood from the couch and automatically gathered up their plates and headed for the kitchen. She stood slowly as Jane moved around the kitchen putting things away. "We still haven't talked yet," Maura spoke quietly as Jane finished her task.

"I know," Jane said while trying to look busy. She made her way around Maura and headed for the door. "I should go though, really."

"You should, should you?" Maura questioned pointedly. While she didn't intend to, a lot of the feelings of discontent she had buried regarding Jane's girlfriend seeped into the air via uncharacteristic snark.

Jane whirled around to face her best friend. She shook her head and held her tongue. She wasn't in the mood for any of this. She'd had a long day and while she'd hoped that having dinner and some down time with her best friend would help to put the contents of the day behind her it had only proven to make it worse. She needed to get away from Maura before she said or did something that she would regret. "Yeah, so I'm going."

Maura shook her head with clear irritation before crossing the distance between them. "What if I could really use your company tonight, Jane?"

"Oh please," Jane said just dismissing the words. "You didn't even want to have dinner with me at first. You don't need my company."

"What I need, is not to feel like an afterthought." Maura snapped, her irritation morphing into agitation. She didn't want to turn this into a huge fight, but her self-control had waned. After everything she had experienced in the past weeks, this was breaking point. Jane couldn't just invite herself over for dinner and then run off. She had been doing too much running when it mattered and she was tired of it.

Jane let out a breathy laugh. "You're the afterthought? Maura you're the only damned thought that runs through my head every day!" She shook her head once again to stop herself from saying anything further that she might regret at the moment.

Maura tilted her head in serious thought. The swirling cloud of anger that peppered her brain attempted to push through and retort with force, but she held it back. She held it back in an attempt to stop this moment from deteriorating completely. Finally after several moments of thought, her eyes locked with the tumultuous brown staring her down. "Then, stay." She barely broke a whisper, her eyes dropping to her hands that she clasped together.

A slight frustrated growl fell from Jane's lips. She hated this. There were things that they needed to talk about yes, but there were so many thoughts that she needed to get in order before she had that talk. More than anything though she hated the way those two soft words had just come from Maura's lips. Something in them said that she was almost defeated and Jane knew that she'd had a part in that. Before she could think of anything else she closed the distance between them. She pulled Maura into her arms as her lips crashed against those of the honey blonde.

The unexpected kiss froze Maura in her tracks. Sure a part of her wanted to respond with urgency, but the bigger part of her – the part of her that was still married and still very much confused by Jane's choices of late won the day. Her entire body stiffened before she forcefully pressed her hands against the detective's chest and pushed her away. "Don't," she uttered sadly. "Just don't."

"See? I told you I should have just left," Jane said as she backed off a few steps.

"Oh stop being such a feline Jane, you can't run from life forever!"

"I'm not trying to run from anything, Maura! I'm just trying to not turn everything into a disaster like I always seem to, okay!"

"Well you failed miserably." Maura replied dismissively, no longer caring if Jane stayed or left. It was too much. Nate, the baby she lost, and now whatever the hell Jane's kiss meant. It was just too much. "You walked away from me once Jane, I'm sure you can do it again."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Jane asked angrily as her hands flew up into the air and eventually landed with her fingers tangling in her raven locks. There wasn't one time that she had ever just walked away from her best friend and she didn't like being accused of such. "I've never walked away from you!"

"What else would you call letting me marry Nate, Jane? You're the love of my life and you knew that. You claimed to love me so much and yet you gave me away." Maura jabbed her finger into Jane's sternum, "You. Walked. Away!"

"No," Jane said sternly as one of her hands came out of her hair so she could point at Maura. "No," she reinforced. "I let you go. There is a big difference between walking away and letting you go. And we both know why I had to let you go. We settled that a long time ago."

"But it's okay to put Jenny through that possible heartache? Jenny's good enough to have you? What if you do something reckless and don't go home to her Jane? How is that any different to leaving me alone without you?" Maura responded with an intensity she hadn't felt in a long time. She was allowing herself to explore the anger she felt towards Jane. What else was she to think?

Jane deflated slightly. So that's what all of this was about? She should have known. "Because it just is," she said lamely, quietly. Her gaze had shifted so that she was staring across the room rather than looking into the angry eyes of her best friend.

"Bullshit." Maura spat aggressively, more than sure her response would have an effect on the detective. She turned and stormed out of the foyer, up the stairs and into her bedroom, slamming the door hard. She was done with the conversation. If Jane couldn't face the truth then she didn't want to waste any more precious oxygen on the woman. At least not right now.

Jane huffed. "Dammit," she said to herself. She headed for the stairs. She only hoped that Maura hadn't decided to lock the bedroom door; she didn't feel like kicking the door in to get to her tonight.

She practically stomped down the hall and then let out a grateful sigh as her hand was able to turn the knob on the door. As she flung the door open she'd expected to find her best friend on the bed. Instead the room was empty. Jane gazed over at the en suite. She cursed silently to herself this time as she realized that the door was closed on it. Chances were it was probably locked. She wouldn't find out though if she just stood there.

She walked quietly over to the door and tried the handle. Just as she thought; locked. Jane took in a deep breath to steady her nerves and rapped softly on the door. "Maura," she called gently. "Please come back out and talk to me."

Maura didn't know how to feel about Jane deciding to follow her up the stairs. She sighed and sniffed back some tears before blowing her nose and washing her face. The last thing she wanted was for Jane to know she had been crying.

She sighed and turned to the bathroom door. "Go away," she said just loud enough for Jane to hear. Not that she meant it. She was an inferno of conflicting emotions and while in one moment she wanted nothing more than for Jane to go home, in the next she wanted nothing more than to be wrapped up in those strong protective arms.

"Please?" Jane begged softly through the door. "I know you don't really want me to go away, Maur. Please just let me in and we'll keep talking about this."

The sincerity in her best friend's voice broke down Maura's defenses. She opened the door to see Jane standing there, concern and a tinge of regret lacing her features. Tears welled up in her eyes again at the sight of the detective and she stepped forward into arms that opened up and embraced her.

Maura reveled in the feel of the tight embrace, but emotion still overwhelmed her and she mumbled through her tears into Jane's clavicle. "Why her Jane? Why not me?"

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 **So, I guess we kind of left that at a cliffhanger. Sorry about that, but will definitely try to have the next update out next week if possible. We'll just have to see how my case load goes this week at the hospital. Thanks for reading! And, as always, I'd love to know what you think, so please leave a review!**


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: Hey Y'all! I am so sorry about the long wait between this chapter and the last one. Life has just been a bit crazy. I'm also sorry that I did not respond to your reviews this time, but I figured that you would rather have a new chapter over hearing back from me. Anyway, I'll leave you alone now to just read this chapter. Enjoy!**

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Jane let out a heavy sigh and rubbed her arms up and down Maura's back to try and soothe her. "It's complicated, but I know that you need to hear it." Jane started to move backwards slowly to take Maura with her. She felt the back of her legs finally connect with the bed and slowly moved to sit on the edge of the bed, pulling Maura down beside her.

She turned slightly so she was facing Maura better. She looked at the tears still welled in the hazel eyes that she loved so much. She couldn't help but look away. She knew that if she didn't though she would be crying too. "I became everything to you; your best friend, family, everything," she whispered. "And it would only take one instant for you to lose all of it."

Jane's eyes flicked back to Maura's momentarily and she could see the pain swirling in them and knew Maura was thinking about what it would be like to lose her. "I couldn't do that to you. I couldn't let you lose everything if something happened and we were involved."

"You could let her though?" Maura immediately questioned.

Jane shook her head. "It's not the same, Maura. She has family; a big family. If something ever happened to me she would eventually be able to move on. It's not the same for you; not when I am everything for you. I thought that if I let you go so you could be married and have a family that if something ever happened to me you'd be more protected. You'd have more people to help get you through. You being okay is the most important thing to me."

Maura slid away from Jane on the bed. She shook her head. "You just don't get it do you?" she asked as she stood and started away from Jane.

"Hey," Jane said as she reached out and grabbed Maura's arm to keep her from leaving again. "You claim that I'm the one running here and yet that's the second time that you've tried to leave me tonight. I can't understand what's going on if you're going to leave and not talk to me."

Jane could see a tear streak down Maura's cheek. She stood up and took Maura into her arms again. "Whether or not we're together I'll lose everything if something happens to you, Jane," Maura mumbled into her shoulder. "It's going to be just as devastating whether it's the two of us or whether I had a family of a hundred to support me."

Tears now streaked down Jane's cheeks. "That's what I wanted to avoid," Jane said as she placed a soft kiss on Maura's forehead at her hairline. "I don't want you to be unhappy."

"But I am unhappy."

"I know," Jane replied as she rested her chin on Maura's head. "I have been too. I had hoped for a while that Jenny could take some of it away, but she was really more of a distraction from not being able to have you. I cared about her, a lot actually, but I'll always love you. Guess I could have saved us a lot of time if I'd have just run off with you on your wedding day instead." Jane cracked a slight smile at her attempt at humor and lightening the mood around them.

Maura cracked a smile as well. It was almost impossible not to smile when Jane was trying to be funny. She turned serious again rather quickly though. "We can't keep doing this."

"Doing what?" Jane asked softly.

"Not communicating; ignoring things between us. All it's managed to do so far is get us both hurt and I don't want that to keep happening."

"I don't either." Jane leaned back slightly so that she could look down at Maura. She could see for the first time just how tired her best friend looked. She'd been so caught up in her own things the past few days that she'd missed that Maura wasn't taking good care of herself and she felt guilty. "You know, it's been a long couple of weeks for the both of us. What do you say that we try to get some sleep and we can work on the communication thing later on?"

Maura smiled hesitantly up at her. "You're going to stay aren't you?"

Jane shrugged. "I figured you'd be pretty sick of me by now and want me to go home. However, if you want me to stay, I can do that too."

Maura nodded quickly. "I want you to stay."

"Okay," Jane replied. "I'll go get ready in the guest room and meet you back here in bed."

R&I

Jane reentered the master bedroom to find Maura sitting up in bed leaning against the headboard. The lower half of her body was already under the covers, but Jane knew that Maura was waiting on her before she completely got into bed. She made her way around the end of the bed and over to her side. She slid back the covers and climbed in.

Maura slid down under the covers as Jane climbed into the bed. There was still a few inches of separation between them as they lay their staring at the ceiling as the silence between them started to build.

Jane turned her head to look at the woman that she loved. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.

"I was just thinking about how much I would have liked to have been a mother."

Jane's eyebrows raised in curiosity as she continued to look at Maura. Of all the things she thought Maura would be thinking about that was one of the last things on her mind. "You'd have made a great mother, Maur," she said as she turned on her side to face Maura.

"Thank you," Maura said as her voice cracked on the last word.

"I'm sorry things happened like they did," Jane replied as she scooted closer to Maura. "I know how excited you were to be a mom." She could see tears welling up in Maura's eyes as she listened to her words. "To tell you the truth I was excited too."

"You were?" Maura questioned as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Yeah," Jane said as she swiped her finger at the tear. "It was strange. For the first time I was seeing myself as a parent and I wasn't even going to be a parent." More tears started to make their way down Maura's cheeks now. "Aww, Maur," Jane said as the wrapped an arm around Maura and pulled her close.

Jane continued to hold on to Maura as she let out her built up emotions. Finally a few minutes later Maura pulled back slightly so she could look at Jane. "I really would have liked you to have been a parent with me Jane," she confessed. "Knowing Nate was leaving scared me so much at first, but then I remembered I had you in my life and I knew that you'd be there to help. The only way that I knew that would have made it better would have been if it we were together and it had been our baby."

"Yeah," Jane replied almost wistfully; though at the moment that was the only thing that she could think of to say since that was something she had wanted so desperately as well.

"Will you promise not to make too much fun of me if I tell you something that I day dreamed about while pregnant?"

Jane looked at Maura and quirked an eyebrow, "I wouldn't make fun you."

"Mmm, you say that now…"

Jane rolled her eyes slightly, "Okay, just tell me. Please?"

"Alright," Maura agreed. "So, one day I was imagining what it would be like in my last trimester of pregnancy. My stomach was all rounded out and I would probably feel miserable, but you were there. You would come in and start rubbing my stomach and kissing it while talking to the baby and it would make me feel better."

"I know it's crazy," Maura said quietly after a couple of moments of silence passed between them.

"No, no, Maur. It's not crazy at all," Jane said as she leaned her head back slightly into the pillow. "Honestly, I had wanted it to be our baby too. And finding you that night…" She paused momentarily as she thought about what to say. "Finding you wasn't just devastating because I was so afraid that I could lose you, but also because I realized how much I loved you and that I wanted to be with you and no one else. But it was like I was almost too late, and I think that scared me some too: it's why I it's taken me a little bit to say anything since then."

Things went silent, but Jane thought she heard something of a gasp slip from between Maura's lips. She shifted in the bed so that she could see Maura better. There were tears welled in Maura's eyes once again, threatening to spill over. "Hey," Jane said in her most soothing manner, "what's wrong?"

"You really want us to be together?"

Jane nodded silently. "Yes," she confessed. "I really want us to be together."

"Jane," Maura said breathily as a tear streaked down her cheek.

Jane now felt Maura's arms wrap around her and pull her in closer. She wasn't entirely sure of what was happening between them, but it had to be something good.

"I love you, Jane."

"I love you too, Maur."

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 **So? I'm thinking that this might be the last chapter and the next one will be an epilogue, but I haven't completely made up my mind yet: which means that we're all in for a surprise with the next chapter I guess. Anyway, you know i want to know what you thought about this chapter, so don't forget to leave me a review!**


	15. Epilogue

**AN: Hey y'all! I am so sorry for the long wait for this, but the last few weeks of externship were crazy and now I have just over a week until I take my national certification exam and really need to study. So, here's this for you. Enjoy!**

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She was lying in the hospital bed where she could hear the two different heartbeats on the monitors. Though her eyes were closed she could tell that both of the beats were within the rate that they should be. She had been in labor for close to 20 hours and she knew that she was nearly there. She was at eight centimeters the last time they had checked. That was far enough along for the nurses to start to wheel in everything they thought they might in the room when it came time for her to push.

She opened her eyes momentarily before quickly slamming them shut again as a powerful contraction ripped through her body. Though she'd had an epidural the contractions at this point were preparing her body for what was coming next.

 _She reached down for the test on the edge of the bathroom sink. Three minutes could pass agonizingly slow when waiting for a test that could change your life. She looked down at the test and smiled when she saw the result she'd been hoping for._

"Well it looks like you're ready now Maura. I'm going to get ahold of the doctor and then you'll be ready to push," the nurse said as she finished the latest check.

It had been just about two hours since they'd told her she was at eight centimeters and she was grateful that the last part of the labor was moving at a quicker pace than the rest of it. Though she had been resting as much as possible her body felt completely wiped out anyway. She knew that soon it would all be worth it though. More than anything she wanted to be able to hold her baby.

Maura felt a hand brush the hair back from her damp forehead and she opened her eyes. "Is there anything else that I can do right now?"

She shook her head. The only thing that she wanted at this point, a healthy, living baby, was something that no one could guarantee her until she could warp her arms around her little bundle.

A flurry of activity took place around her as soon as the nurse has said that she was ready. It seemed like a dozen more people showed up in the room to start making things happen. Within a few minutes the doctor showed up and things seemed to calm down around her once again. "Okay Maura, on the next contraction I need you to give me a big push."

 _She slowly eased her way onto the bed. She was going to be tired tomorrow. Maybe everyone had been correct when they had said that she needed to start slowing down. Perhaps at nearly eight months along it was just too physically taxing on her body to go to all of the crime scenes, do the autopsies, and help process evidence. She was the boss; she could start delegating a few more tasks. What might it say about her as a parent if she couldn't even take the time to slow down now?_

 _"Hey," came the gravelly voice from the doorway. "I thought I might find you here. You seemed pretty tired when I was in your office earlier."_

 _She sighed, "I think it's about time that I started to slow down. Maybe not take calls in the middle of the night and still work my regular shift."_

 _A smirk made its way across the face that was now standing right next to the bed. "I think that might be your way of saying I was right."_

 _She quirked an eyebrow and tilted her head as she watched Jane make her way over to the other side of the bed and climb in as well._

 _"I think your mom just admitted for the first time that she was wrong, kid. Be glad that you were here to witness it because it doesn't happen often," Jane said towards her belly._

She'd been pushing for close to an hour now. She wasn't sure that she had the energy to push any longer.

"Come on Maura. Just another push or two and you should be able to see your beautiful baby."

She shook her head. "I can't. I don't have the energy left."

"Yes you can," the doctor replied.

She shook her head again.

Just then she felt the hand that she'd been hold onto squeeze hers. "You can do it," she heard whispered in her ear. "You're the strongest person I know. And soon you're going to get to see and hold our beautiful baby girl."

Maura turned to look into the deep brown eyes beside her. She nodded her head and squeezed the hand back as she started to push once more.

"Good Maura," the doctor commented. "Here's the head."

She eased off the push knowing that she would get to see her baby in mere moments.

"Nuchal cord," the doctor called. "I can't get it loose. I need clamps, now!"

Maura sucked in a quick breath. She knew that the doctor was saying that the cord was tightly wrapped around her baby's neck and that it couldn't easily be freed. The doctor was going to have to quickly clamp the cord and cut it in order to keep her baby from suffocating.

"Please don't let anything happen to her," Maura begged as she began to sob. Her plea went unrecognized. "Please," she repeated through the tears that started to spill from her eyes.

Moments later the doctor placed her baby on her chest where she immediately wrapped her arms round her.

"Congratulations on your little girl. I'm going to go ahead and let the nurses get a good look at her," the doctor said to Maura as the baby was taken from her chest and handed over to the nurses.

The doctor turned to the other woman in the room and spoke. "I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to cut the cord. It's been quite some time since I've had a nuchal cord that tight."

Jane's eyes flicked from the doctor to Maura and then over to where the nurses had the baby while they checked her over. "It's quite alright. There's nothing more that I could ask for than both my girls being alright."

She felt Jane lean over and place a kiss to the top of her head before whispering in her ear, "You're amazing and she's perfect."

Maura laced her hand with Jane's once more. She could feel the cool metal of the wedding band on her finger. "She's okay?"

"Yes, she's perfect," Jane emphasized the last word.

"Would you like to see for yourself?" The nurse asked as she headed towards them with a bundle in her arms.

Maura nodded instantly and the nurse gently placed the baby in her arms. She undid the swaddling and more tears spilled out of her eyes as the little girl latched onto her index finger. "Now we need to come up with a name for her."

"It does seem a bit strange that we made it this far and don't have a name for her," Jane said as she propped herself on the edge of the bed and wrapped her arms around both Maura and the baby. "Whatever we end up naming her one thing is for sure. I'm never letting go again."

 _ **END**_

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 **AN2: Thank you all so much for sticking with me through this story. I have been blown away by all of the reads, faves, follows, and reviews to this story. Thank you for all of that. And thank you Wolvesjr34 for allowing me to do a continuation of your story And. Hope to see y'all around with my next story soon.**


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